The Subjection of WomenThe object of this essay is to explain as clearly as I am able, the grounds of an opinion which I have held from the very earliest period when I had formed any opinions at all on social or political matters, and which, instead of being weakened or modified, has been constantly growing stronger by the progress of reflection and the experience of life: That the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes- the legal subordination of one sex to the other- is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement ; and that is ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. |
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admit affairs allowed Aristotle bodily capacity character chivalrous Christianity common consider consideration constitution cultivation custom depend desire despotism differences duty effect eminent England equal evil exclude exercise exist experience fact faculties favour feelings fluence freedom functions give greater HARVARD COLLEGE Hobson's choice human nature husband improvement individual inferior influence institutions interest justice kings law of force least less lives male sex mankind marriage married married couples master means members of parliament ment mental mind modern moral Mozart never number of women obedience object obtained occupations opinion original persons pleasure plebeian political political emancipation position practical present presumption principle privilege pursuit question racter reason relation rence respect rience rule sentiments serfs slavery slaves social society speculation strongest superior supposed tastes tendencies things thought tion vidual virtue voluntary association whole wife wives woman
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Page 38 - I deny that any one knows, or can know, the nature of the two sexes as long as they have only been seen in their present relation to one another. If men had ever been found in society •without women, or women without men, or if there had been a society of men and women in which the women were not under the control of the men, something might have been positively known about the mental and moral differences which may be inherent in the nature of each. What is now called the nature of women is an...
Page 53 - She can do no act whatever but by his permission, at least tacit. She can acquire no property but for him; the instant it becomes hers, even if by inheritance, it becomes ipso facto his. In this respect the wife's position under the common law of England is worse than that of slaves in the laws of many countries: by the Roman law, for example, a slave might have his peculium, which to a certain extent the law guaranteed to him for KlS exclusive USfi.
Page 143 - It is the sole case, now that negro slavery has been abolished, in which a human being in the plenitude of every faculty is delivered up to the tender mercies of another human being, in the hope forsooth that this other will use the power solely for the good of the person subjected to it. Marriage is the only actual bondage known to our law. There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house.
Page 134 - It appears to be the same right turn of mind which enables a man to acquire the truth, or the just idea of what is right, in the ornaments, as in the more stable principles of art. It has still the same centre of perfection, though it is the centre of a smaller circle. To illustrate this by the fashion of dress, in which there is allowed to be a good or bad taste. The component parts of dress are continually changing from great to little, from short to long ; but the general form still remains :...
Page 36 - The social subordination of women thus stands out an isolated fact in modern social institutions ; a solitary breach of what has become their fundamental law ; a single relic of an old world of thought and practice exploded in everything else...
Page 144 - To which let me first answer, the advantage of having the most universal and pervading of all human relations regulated by justice instead of injustice. The vast amount of this gain to human nature, it is hardly possible, by any explanation or illustration, to place in a stronger light than it is placed by the bare statement, to any one who attaches a moral meaning to words.
Page 79 - Citizenship, in free countries, is partly a school of society in equality ; but citizenship fills only a small place in modern life, and does not come near the daily habits or inmost sentiments. The family, justly constituted, would be the real"'' school of the virtues of freedom.
Page 1 - That the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes — the legal subordination of one sex to the other — is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other.
Page 20 - ... better foundation than those. We must consider, too, that the possessors of the power have facilities in this case, greater than in any other, to prevent any uprising against it. Every one of the subjects lives under the very eye, and almost, it may be said, in the hands, of one of the masters — in closer intimacy with him than with any of her fellow-subjects; with no means of combining against him, no power of even locally overmastering him, and, on the other hand, with the strongest motives...
Page 11 - ... social interest on his side. This being the ostensible state of things, people flatter themselves that the rule of mere force is ended; that the law of the strongest cannot be the reason of existence of anything which has remained in full operation down to the present time. However any of our present institutions may have begun, it can only, they think, have been preserved to this period of advanced civilization by a well-grounded feeling of its adaptation to human nature and conduciveness to...