A Re-Examination of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Wom

Before I Smith’s essay, I will provide a brief explanation of how From The Subjection of Women is incomplete. Firstly, I believe that overlooking the omitted sections is an unfo

Elizabeth S. Smith’s essay, John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women: a re-examination, has been an essential element to my understanding of From The Subjection of Women. I believe that it can be a tremendous aid to future students who would like to know the history of this essay and the issues that influenced Mill’s content and date of publishing. I also believe that it is important for students to read criticism that is not particularly favorable towards Mill’s essay and in turn read the arguments that support it. Finally, I believe it is crucial that students have a sense of what Mill intended to achieve by reading his quotes and the information on his life and influences. This essay is a great tool for increasing one’s understanding of The Subjection of Women, because it gives the reader an overview of the entire text and context, not just selected sections.

I believe the point has now been reached at which, the higher we pitch our claims, the more disposition there will be to concede part or them. All I have yet heard of the reception of the new book [The Subjection of Women] confirms this idea. People tell me that it is lowering the tone of our opponents as well as raising that of our supporters. Everything I hear strengthens me in the belief, which I at first entertained with a slight mixture of misgiving that the book had come out at the right time and that no part is premature (15).

The next issue is dealt in the same manner as the first, as the critics are illustrated in disagreement with Mill’s statement: “In an otherwise just state of things, it is not, therefore, I think a desirable custom that the wife should contribute by her labour to the income of the family” (qtd. in Smith 3). To suggest that the woman should remain in the house and maintain a division of labor is undoubtedly sexist, as Smith points out in the following quote by Susan Okin that states: “Mill’s assumption of the immutability of existing family structure, and his failure to discuss its repercussions for the lives of women, constitute a gap in his feminist thought which the current feminist movement is attempting to remedy” (qtd. in Smith 3). Smith deals with this problem further by producing more quotations throughout the essay.

One of the criticisms that helps the reader engage with the text is paraphras

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