Revision summary
J. S. Mill argued that women must vote as persons, against legal subjection. The Subjection of Women and the 1867 ‘person’ amendment are the key texts and act. The case rests on liberty, talent, and the moral quality of representative government. Pateman and MacKinnon accept the franchise and still criticise the sexual contract. Indian universal adult franchise realised Mill’s demand earlier than Britain did.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
J. S. Mill, not a truncated “S. Mill”, made women’s suffrage a test of representative government. In The Subjection of Women (1869) and in the Commons, he treated the vote as a right of persons, not a male privilege.
Body
The argument
- Legal subjection of wives is a surviving slavery. It corrupts both sexes and wastes half the talent of the species.
- Suffrage follows from the same liberty of thought and self-development that On Liberty defends.
- Mill moved an amendment to the 1867 Reform Bill to replace “man” with “person”. It failed, but it put the claim on the parliamentary record.
- He held that political exclusion teaches women dependence and men unjust pride, which is bad for the quality of government.
Limit and later critique
- Mill still spoke the language of civilisation, education, and household improvement. Pateman says the sexual contract is deeper than a franchise extension.
- MacKinnon would add that a vote without reconstruction of sexuality and workplace power is incomplete.
- Indian adult franchise in 1950, including women, went further than Mill’s Britain. Social domination did not vanish with the roll.
- The accurate comment is: Mill supplied the classic liberal case for women as electors and candidates; feminism after Pateman asks for more than the ballot.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD M[J. S. Mill] --> S[Subjection of Women 1869] M --> V[Suffrage as personhood] M --> R[1867 Reform amendment] P[Pateman MacKinnon] --> L[Vote is not enough]
Conclusion
J. S. Mill tied women suffrage to liberty, competence, and the end of legal subjection. The 1867 amendment was his parliamentary act. Pateman and MacKinnon keep the vote and still criticise the gendered state that Mill only partly saw.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Examine the importance of behavioural approach in political theory. What led to its decline?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2021 · Q2(b)). View answer →
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Did Mill want only educated women to vote?
He favoured a literate, capable electorate for both sexes in some writings, but the core claim is that sex is not a ground of exclusion.
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Is the official name J. S. Mill or S. Mill?
The thinker is John Stuart Mill, written J. S. Mill. ‘S. Mill’ is a truncation, not the official name.
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