Unlock the intellectual treasures of political theory with our meticulously crafted notes from Warwick's PAIS Department's module, "Political Theory from Hobbes (PO201)." Dive deep into the ideas of influential Western European thinkers since the 17th century, benefiting from extensive coverage, in...
- JSM was brought up a utilitarian (a philosophical view associated with Bentham: a
close friend of Mill’s father and involved in his upbringing. The basic idea of this is
that the right thing to do is whatever will produce the most happiness overall. The
core components of this are: everybody’s happiness counted equally + the happiness
of every person that results from each action/ policy = the result you should choose
is the one which results in the most happiness. This view heavily impacted the kinds
of arguments Mill made against marriage.
- At the time Mill and Taylor were writing, the law of Coverture was in force. This
meant that under the law, a wife and husband were treated as one unit. This meant
all of a woman’s property went to her husband, and she had no right over her own
children. The husband has the right to make all decisions for the family unit, and the
wife has to obey. More importantly, marital rape was legal. This here, was the
system Mill and Taylor were criticising.
- 1870 and 1882 Acts allowed women to retain rights over their own property.
- 1991 saw marital rape become a crime.
- In this sense, is The Subjection of Women merely an obsolete criticism of laws that
no longer exist? Or does it still make criticisms relevant to marriage today?
- Within the second chapter of the Subjection of Women, there are three main
critiques of marriage:
1) Women are compelled to marry: social and economic pressure and the
significance of the institution of marriage left women with no, or little, real
option. It is the ‘destination appointed by society for women’ (436). The same is
not true for men! There should be alternative life options open: for instance, the
option of earning a living independently.
2) The legal institution of marriage gives men despotic power over their wives:
this is aking to slavery. Wives are typically treated as slaves, but are in fact more
under the control of their husbands than slaves their masters. This is because: a)
the right to divorce is limited, b) a married woman cannot own property
independently, c) the husband is responsible for the wife’s actions and d) the
husband has the right over their wife’s body. Therefore, husbands have absolute
power over their wives. Even if a husband is kind, it doesn’t matter – the real
issue is the power they have, and not how they use it.
3) Marriage has a bad effect on the character of both husbands and wives:
Absolute power encourages aggressive and selfish behaviour: ‘we know that the
bad propensities of human nature are only kept within bounds when they are
allowed no scope for their indulgence’ (443). Men are encouraged to not see
others as equals: ‘taught to worship their own will as such a grand thing that it is
actually the law for another rational being’ (448). Women are taught to be self-
sacrificing. Also, it has similar harmful effects on children brought up within a
marriage: ‘the family is a school of despotism, in which the virtues of despotism,
but also its vices, are largely nourished’. (450).
- Despite the progressive arguments made by Mill and Taylor, Feminists have criticised
it. This is because Mill seems to buy into traditional assumptions about gender roles.
He seems to think it’s appropriate that women take on childrearing and domestic
labour rather than earning an income. So can we learn from their critiques of
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