EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
J. S. Mill's ideas on women suffrage. (UPSC CSE Mains 2021 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- Mill vouched for female emancipation and apprehended their sub human treatment. He goes on to explain the benefits of female emancipation and education from the utilitarian perspective. Mill argues that more people existing alongside one another on an equal footing means increased competition and this would lead to moral and intellectual development of individual as well as the society. Mill worked extensively to make people of his time realise that contribution of women is crucial for the progression of mankind.
- John Stuart Mill attacked women’s status in the marriage, which he saw as a kind of a legal bondage. All property and any income derived from marriage belonged to the husband, even if the wife had brought the property to the marriage. Mill also acknowledged physical abuse in the marriage. Mill advocated for a marriage contract based on equality before the law and the division of powers in the home and for this he sponsored Married Women’s Property Bill (1868). Mill raised the issue of women''s suffrage and stood for political equality of women. He presented arguments to cement his proposal. He viewed that as women make up half of the population, thus they also have a right to a vote since political policies affect women too. He theorises that most men will vote for those MPs who will subordinate women and maintain their dominance, therefore women must be allowed to vote to protect their own interests. "Under whatever conditions, and within whatever limits, men are admitted to the suffrage, there is not a shadow of justification for not admitting women under the same."
- In the United Kingdom, Mary Wollstonecraft advocated for women''s suffrage in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and the Chartist movement demanded it in the 1840s. From 1850s onwards, prominent liberal intellectuals in England, most notably John Stuart Mill and his wife, Harriet, became more vocal in their support for women''s suffrage. Mill sponsored the women’s suffrage amendment to the reform act of 1867, an amendment that would expand the right to vote for both men and women.
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