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The Subjection of Women Quotes by John Stuart Mill: Context & Meanings

7 quotations linked to The Subjection of Women by or associated with John Stuart Mill, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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1869 political and social philosophy essay

Topics and ideas

Freedom, equality, individuality, women’s rights, justice, education and the case against legally enforced social subordination.

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Prominent ideas connected with the quotations represented here

Freedom 7Independence 6Philosophy 5Thinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & Judgment 5Thought-Provoking Quotes That Invite Reflection 5Humanity 4Self-Respect Quotes About Dignity & Boundaries 4Justice 4Be Yourself 3Deep 3Equality 3Identity 3Mind 3Self Reliance 3
Represented passages

7 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1
Society in equality is its normal state.
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“Society in equality is its normal state.”

John Stuart Mill
Meaning & context

Mill contrasts relations organized around command and obedience with equal association, presenting equality as the normal direction of an improving society.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 79, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill contrasts command-and-obedience relations with equal association and states that society in equality is the normal state toward which improving social relations should move.

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Source identified2
The a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.
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“The a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.”

John Stuart Mill
Meaning & context

Mill places the burden of proof on restrictions and unequal privilege rather than treating inherited inequality as self-justifying.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 3, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill places the burden of proof on restrictions and unequal privilege, stating that the a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.

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Source identified3
What women by nature cannot do, it is quite superfluous to forbid them from doing.
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“What women by nature cannot do, it is quite superfluous to forbid them from doing.”

John Stuart Mill
Meaning & context

The argument exposes a contradiction in claims about natural incapacity: if an activity were truly impossible by nature, legal prohibition would be unnecessary.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 48, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that if an activity were truly contrary to women’s nature, legal or social prohibition would be superfluous; the sentence belongs to his case for free development and open competition.

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Source identified4
The question rests with women themselves—to be decided by their own experience, and by the use of their own faculties.
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“The question rests with women themselves—to be decided by their own experience, and by the use of their own faculties.”

John Stuart Mill
Meaning & context

Mill argues that women themselves must test capacities and choices through experience rather than having those possibilities defined in advance by others.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 48, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that questions about women’s capacities and vocations should be decided by women’s own experience and use of their faculties rather than imposed in advance by men.

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Source identified5
Human beings are no longer born to their place in life, and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to.
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“Human beings are no longer born to their place in life, and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to.”

John Stuart Mill
Meaning & context

Mill contrasts modern ideals of social mobility and personal freedom with older hereditary arrangements that fixed people permanently into inherited stations.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 29, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill contrasts inherited fixed social stations with the modern principle that people should be free to employ their faculties and pursue available opportunities.

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Source identified6
The equality of married persons before the law, is not only the sole mode in which that particular relation can be made consistent with justice to both sides.
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“The equality of married persons before the law, is not only the sole mode in which that particular relation can be made consistent with justice to both sides.”

John Stuart Mill
Meaning & context

Mill applies equal legal standing to marriage, arguing that a just relationship cannot rest on one adult possessing a superior legal status over the other.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 78, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that equality of married persons before the law is required for justice to both sides and for marriage to become a school of moral cultivation rather than legal subordination.

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Source identified7
He who would rightly appreciate the worth of personal independence as an element of happiness, should consider the value he himself puts upon it as an ingredient of his own.
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“He who would rightly appreciate the worth of personal independence as an element of happiness, should consider the value he himself puts upon it as an ingredient of his own.”

John Stuart Mill
Meaning & context

Mill asks readers to evaluate another person’s need for independence by first recognizing how strongly they value independence in their own lives.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter IV, printed page 179, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill asks readers to estimate another person’s need for independence by considering the value they themselves place on personal independence as an element of happiness.

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More represented works

Continue through other sources by John Stuart Mill

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