On the Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill - Chapter 1

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873), influential thinker, philosopher, political economist and lifelong advocate for social reform, published his essay on the Subjection of Women in 1869. In it he discusses his views on the suppression of women's liberty. He calls for reform of existing laws which gave husbands sovereignty over their wives in every department of life; he demands that women should be liberated from the suppression of prevailing social attitudes through better education, equality of suffrage and equal opportunities with men in all areas of endeavour to which their personal aptitudes and abilities qualified them.