J. S. Mill's Ethology and his Engagement with the 'Women's Cause'

This paper intends to analyze Mill’s stance concerning an important Victorian issue: the role of women in society. Mill assumed the role of protagonist in this debate: in 1866, he presented an important petition in Parliament in favor of women’s suffrage and, in 1869, he published The Subjection of Women – an important benchmark in nineteenth century feminism. I argue that underlying his position in this debate was a specific view of human nature, which located the origin of the existing differences between men and women in prevailing social institutions and habits. Mill’s ethological analysis was central to his engagement in the women’s cause on at least three levels: (i) it challenged the scientific authority of the prevailing theories, which considered gender differences innate/natural, and thus, inevitable, and opened ample space for social reform; (ii) it oriented Mill’s reform agenda concerning women by pointing out the institutions and habits that produced and sustained the existing gender inequality; (iii) it furnished ammunition for the defense of the reforms, as it anticipated the great social improvement that women’s political, social and economic emancipation would produce.