The bondage of the woman

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John Stuart Mill
Harriet Taylor Mill

The Subjection of Women (english The Subjection of Women ) is an essay which in 1869 under the name of the English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill was published in England. The work is the result of the thoughts and ideas that Mill had discussed and developedtogether with his future wife Harriet Taylor Mill over two decades. His stepdaughter Helen Taylor is mostly, but not always, named as a co-author today.

The subject of the essay, considered one of the most important works of 19th century feminist theory, is a fundamental critique of the unequal social status of women. Mill's characteristic political and moral arguments, which were known from his works On Freedom , Principles of Political Economy, and reflections on representative democracy , were taken up again in the pamphlet and pointed to the connection between liberal culture and the gender order. At the time of publication, the demand for gender equality was an affront to the norms of the status of men and women in Europe.

In Germany, the work, translated by Jenny Hirsch , appeared in the same year under the title Die Hörigkeit der Frau . In the new German edition of selected works by John Stuart Mill in 2012, the title was instead literally translated as The Submission of Women , which has since been adopted in German academic literature.

Emergence

The bondage of women is also considered a "continuation" or revision of the essay Enfranchisement of Women (1851), which was written by Harriet Taylor, but published under the name of John Stuart Mill. This was probably doubly motivated. For one thing, Harriet Taylor's first husband shouldn't be compromised by publishing a work together. On the other hand, Mill was established as an author and as a male author it was easier to be noticed and taken seriously. After Harriet Taylor Mill's death in 1858, John Stuart Mill published the essay under her name.

Shortly thereafter, he first finished the work On Liberty (1859), which was created with her collaboration, and then continued work on The Subjection of Women until 1861 . As Mills biographer Nicholas Capaldi pointed out, all of his later publications (from the mid-1850s) are revisions of previously published works or extensions and elaborations of ideas that he had developed in the previous two decades, i.e. in exchange with Harriet Taylor Mill.

During his tenure as a member of the British House of Commons , Mill introduced a petition in 1866 to extend the right to vote to women, for which a third of the MPs present voted. In 1867 he followed up with a proposal to delete the gender of the homeowners who were to be given the right to vote in an existing legislative proposal. Mill described the broad support from his counterparts for this proposal as "extremely encouraging". As a result of this triumph, the National Society for Women's Suffrage was founded, supported by Mill and his stepdaughter Helen Taylor, who lived and worked with their stepfather in Avignon until his death .

In 1869, Subjection appeared under Mills name, but in 1873 he referred in his autobiography to the "reciprocal thought process" between himself and his wife as well as the later additions by Harriet's daughter Helen:

“It was written at my daughter's suggestion that there might, in any event, be in existence a written exposition of my opinions on that great question, as full and conclusive as I could make it. The intention was to keep this among other unpublished papers, improving it from time to time if I was able, and to publish it at the time when it should seem likely to be most useful. As ultimately published it was enriched with some important ideas of my daughter's, and passages of her writing. But in what was of my own composition, all that is most striking and profound belongs to my wife; coming from the fund of thought which had been made common to us both, by our innumerable conversations and discussions on a topic which filled so large a place in our minds. "

“It was written at the suggestion of my daughter and because I wanted to leave a written statement of my views on this great issue, just in case, and as completely and definitively as I could. It should remain among other unpublished works and only occasionally be brought out for necessary improvements until a time came when the publication might be expected to be of significant benefit. When it finally appeared in print, it was enriched with some important ideas and passages from my daughter. The most thorough and most impressive passages in it come from my wife, just as the whole thing is drawn from the thought that we have gathered together in our numerous discussions and discussions of an object that occupied our minds so much. "

- John Stuart Mill : Autobiography 1873

In classic Mill research, these statements were mostly ignored, even if the analogies to enfranchisement of women were admitted. The English-language editions of the essay are now published both as a joint work and with Mill as sole author, and the essay is completely absent in the collected writings of Harriet Taylor Mill. In the more recent German-language editions, however, all three authors are always named. The edition of selected writings for which the John Stuart Mill Institute for Freedom Research is responsible gives the authors “John Stuart Mill and Helen Taylor with recourse to the thoughts of Harriet Taylor”. In science there is no consensus on co-authorship, but in the more recent secondary literature there is no doubt that the positions and arguments arose from joint considerations.

Essential thoughts

The publication from 1869 (German: The bondage of women)

At the time of writing his essay, Mill realized that he was fighting against the general view of society, and he was aware that he would be forced to constantly back up his claims. He argued that women's inequality was a holdover from the past when “power was right”, but that has no place in the modern world. Mill saw it as an obstacle to human development when it was impossible for half of the human race to contribute to society outside of their own homes. He demanded:

“[T] he legal subordination of one sex to another - is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a system of perfect equality, admitting no power and privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. "

“The legal submission of one sex to the other - it is inherently wrong and one of the main obstacles to human development today; and that it should be replaced by a system of perfect equality, so that neither the power and privileges of one side nor the ineptitudes of the other side are accorded. "

- John Stuart Mill : On the Subjection of Women , Chapter I (1869)

And he pointed to the general ignorance about the nature of the two sexes by saying:

“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. Until conditions of equality exist, no one can possibly assess the natural differences between women and men, distorted as they have been. What is natural to the two sexes can only be found out by allowing both to develop and use their faculties freely. "

“I deny that anyone knows or can know what the nature of the two sexes is as long as it could only be viewed in the present relationship. Until the conditions of equality exist, no one can really determine the natural differences between men and women, disturbed as they are. What is natural for both sexes can only be found out by allowing both free development and the use of their abilities. "

- John Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism and women's suffrage

If one applies the basic utilitarian formula that an action is morally correct if and only if its consequences for the welfare of all those affected by the action are optimal, then Mill's writing was clearly utilitarian on three points :

  • The immediate benefit, equality, would have an immediate positive impact on society;
  • the enrichment of society, as women's equal participation in society would improve general well-being;
  • the individual further development of women would of course be optimal for women themselves as well as for society as a whole.

Mill also attacked retrograde marriage law, which he compared to the "enslavement of women". After the liberation of slaves, there were no legal slaves left except for the housewives in every household.

And the issue of women's suffrage is raised. Women make up half of the population, so they have a right to participate, as political issues affect women too.

"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."

"Under whatever conditions and within what limits men are allowed to vote, there is no trace of justification for not allowing women under the same conditions."

- John Stuart Mill : The Subjection of Women, Chapter III

Impact history

The appearance of the essay caused great excitement. The first two editions were sold out within a few months. In 1869 Anna Maria Mozzoni translated Die Hörigkeit der Frau into Italian, and the French translation appeared in the same year.

Women’s suffrage advocates on both sides of the Atlantic received the font enthusiastically. Otherwise the book was ignored or mocked or sharply condemned by philosophers and politicians. The work is "indecent", "improper", "arrogant", a "work of moral anarchy" or even "the root of all evil". The fierce criticism was not triggered by the demands for legal equality, but by the argument that the existing inequality between the sexes hampers moral progress and the perfection of humanity, which is why a new gender order in marriage, family and society is necessary. The criticism of the way of life of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill also resonated here.

In fact, according to the political scientist and Mill editor Ulrike Ackermann , traces of this “discomfort” towards the couple and their striving for freedom can still be found in the history of reception: “The male liberal community Mill up to now has known that this taboo break was so vehemently committed by a man not really forgiven today. In a sense, he was cheating on this strong, intellectual woman - a man under influence. ”With the exception of Stefan Collini and Nicholas Capaldi, Ackermann continues, the male authors of research on millennia and liberalism have hardly dealt with the texts on gender equality. In contrast, the first women's movement, as well as those of the 1970s and 1980s , valued these writings. Feminist theory development and gender research have also dealt intensively with it. Ackermann finally stated that the feminist reception had not read the Mill-Taylor texts on the emancipation of women in the overall context of the work of Mill and Taylor Mill, so that the connection with their philosophy of freedom was lost. The male-dominated Mill and liberalism research, on the other hand, ignored the fact that Mill and Taylor Mill developed the principles of individual freedom and freedom of choice in dealing with gender relations and women's emancipation and then generalized these principles.

expenditure

English (selection)

  • The Subjection of Women , Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, London 1869. ( digital copy )
  • Stanton Coit (Ed.): The Subjection of the Women by John Stuart Mill . With introductory analysis. London 1911.
  • The Subjection of Women (1869) . In: John M. Robson (Ed.): Collected works of John Stuart Mill . Essays on equality, law, and education. tape XXI . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5629-6 , pp. 259-340 ( libertyfund.org [accessed November 1, 2018]).

German

  • John Stuart Mill: The bondage of women , F. Berggold, Berlin 1869; translated by Jenny Hirsch. ( Digitized version )
  • John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor Mill, Helen Taylor: The bondage of women . In: Hannelore Schröder (Ed.): The bondage of women and other writings on women's emancipation . Syndikat, Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-8108-0009-0 , p. 7-43 .
  • John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor Mill, Helen Taylor: The bondage of women . Ed .: Hannelore Schröder. 2nd Edition. Helmer, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-927164-42-9 ( projekt-gutenberg.org [accessed November 1, 2018]).
  • John Stuart Mill, Helen Taylor: The Submission of Women . using the thoughts of Harriet Taylor. In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 439–560 (translation by Jenny Hirsch, slightly modernized).

literature

  • Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23-38 .
  • Nicholas Capaldi: John Stuart Mill. A biography . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-62024-4 , pp. 334-339 .
  • Stefan Collini: Introduction . In: John M. Robson (Ed.): Collected works of John Stuart Mill . Essays on equality, law, and education. tape XIX . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5629-6 , pp. 575–622 ( libertyfund.org [accessed November 1, 2018]).
  • Simon Derpmann: John Stuart Mill. Introduction and texts (=  UTB . Volume 4092 ). Fink, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 3-8252-4092-4 , p. 163-177 .
  • Ringo Narewski: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill. Life and work (=  politics and gender . Volume 20 ). VS, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15735-1 , pp. 114-126 .

Web links

Wikisource: The Subjection of Women  - Sources and full texts (English)
Commons : John Stuart Mill  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Commons : Harriet Taylor Mill  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Commons : Helen Taylor (feminist)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Holland-Cunz : The old new women's question (=  Edition Suhrkamp . Volume 2335 ). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-518-12335-1 , pp. 34–43, here 35 .
  2. ^ Stefan Collini: Introduction . In: John M. Robson (Ed.): Collected works of John Stuart Mill . Essays on equality, law, and education. tape XXI . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5629-6 , pp. 7–56, here 33 ( libertyfund.org [accessed November 1, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Nicholas Capaldi: John Stuart Mill. A biography . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-62024-4 , pp. 339 .
  4. ↑ Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23–38, here 33 .
  5. ↑ Nicholas Capaldi: John Stuart Mill. A biography . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-62024-4 , pp. 227-228 .
  6. ↑ a b Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23–38, here 28 .
  7. ↑ Nicholas Capaldi: John Stuart Mill. A biography . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-62024-4 , pp. 235-236 .
  8. ^ Stefan Collini: Introduction . In: John M. Robson (Ed.): Collected works of John Stuart Mill . Essays on equality, law, and education. tape XXI . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5629-6 , pp. 7–56, here 32–33 ( libertyfund.org [accessed November 1, 2018]).
  9. ↑ Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23–38, here 32 .
  10. ↑ German translation quoted by Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23–38, here 32 .
  11. ^ Stefan Collini: Introduction . In: John M. Robson (Ed.): Collected works of John Stuart Mill . Essays on equality, law, and education. tape XIX . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5629-6 , pp. 575–622, 594 ( libertyfund.org [accessed November 1, 2018]).
  12. ↑ Ringo Narewski: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill. Life and Work (=  Politics and Gender . Volume 20 ). VS, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15735-1 , pp. 113-114 .
  13. ↑ Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 .
  14. ↑ Simon Derpmann: John Stuart Mill. Introduction and Texts (=  UTB . Volume 4092 ). Fink, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 3-8252-4092-4 , p. 163 .
  15. ^ Stefan Collini: Introduction . In: John M. Robson (Ed.): Collected works of John Stuart Mill . Essays on equality, law, and education. tape XIX . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5629-6 , pp. 7–56, here 13 ( libertyfund.org [accessed November 1, 2018]).
  16. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , p. 302.
  17. ^ Anna Maria Mozzoni (1837-1920) Women's History Month 2003 by Sunshine for Women. April 20, 2005, accessed January 18, 2020 .
  18. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 293.
  19. ↑ a b Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23–38, here 35 .
  20. ↑ Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23–38, here 36 .
  21. ↑ Ulrike Ackermann: Introduction to Volume I . In: Ulrike Ackermann, Hans Jörg Schmidt (Ed.): John Stuart Mill. Selected works. Volume 1: John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. Freedom and equality . 2nd Edition. Murmann, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86774-177-4 , pp. 23–38, here 36–38 .