Written in 1861, but not published until 1869, The Subjection of Women marked the culmination of John Stuart Mill’s productive, yet often frustrated, attempts to promote women’s suffrage in the mainstream political sphere as M.P. for the Cities of London and Westminster. Mill’s support for women’s suffrage owed much to the influence of his wife, the philosopher Harriet Taylor Mill, as well as his step-daughter Helen Taylor, who Mill credited with contributing to the actual writing of the book. It is by and large an extension of Mill’s brand of Utilitarian ethics, framed in terms of the advancement of human progress and the ‘Greatest-Happiness Principle’, but should ultimately be regarded as a political tract designed to muster broad support for women’s suffrage. The publication represented a crucial moment in the development of first-wave feminism as a significant legitimation and affirmation of the suffrage movement as well as wider feminist thought more broadly.
Provenance: purple stamp of ‘Ruthin Castle Library’ to verso of front flyleaf, with the pencilled ownership inscription of Colonel William Cornwallis Cornwallis-West (1835-1917) to half title. Small pencilled notation ‘No 5’ to front cover.
