Part 3. The Subjection of Women. Our inquiry question, what is the key message behind the subjection of women? Published in 1869, the subjection of women is one of the earliest feminist texts.

J.S. Mill is one of the most important non-female feminists to have ever lived.

Importantly, John Stuart Mill is focusing solely on law here, not the consequence of feminism,

but the law which allows feminism to flourish.

Okay, so this word feminism we haven't used before. So, Andy, can you tell us what is feminism?

It is the ideology that claims that all people are equal, men and women, and therefore,

things shall be done to create that equality.

Yes, there's often a misconception, I think, about feminism, that there's often kind of

associate with man hating or with the idea that women are superior to men.

This is untrue.

Feminism is the idea that men and women should be treated equally.

John Stuart Mill, especially, yeah, he's trying to say that men and women should be treated equally in the eyes of the law.

First of all, John Stuart Mill was married to a lady called Harriet Taylor.

Who was Harriet Taylor?

Harriet Taylor was really for Mill, his kind of, she's often referred to as like his second educator, because so he

had this whole upbringing with his father, James Mill and from Jeremy Bentham and others

around that sphere of influence. But after he had his mentor breakdown and after he kind of

pushed himself to kind of change the way he thought. Harriet Taylor inspired him in a completely

different way. And one of the best things that he took away from her influence is the fact that

it was this support for equal rights for women. I don't think it would be fair to say that he

wouldn't have come up with this without her, but I think his passion for the

subject was certainly influenced by her thought. So to kind of trace John Stripmer's feminism

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