Mill

John Stuart Mill seems to me to be a very noble man who was very far ahead of his time. Today the thought of an independent woman is nothing that innovative, but that was not always the case. There was a time, which only came to an end in some cultures not long ago, when women were second-class citizens. This is obviously an injustice to women who have just as much to contribute to society as men do, but people did not see things this way during the lifetime of Mill. People at that time had decided that when a woman took a husband he became legally responsible for her, just as her father was before her husband. It was not legal for her to won property or enter into legal contracts. This was really unfortunate for them, because today some of the shrewdest businessmen I know are actually women. Women have so much to offer society that men cannot and they have such a different and fresh view of things that I find it hard to believe socity functioned without their active role before. Mill, who was obviously a very forward thinking man, also saw women at their full potential, which is why he refused to subjugate his wife in the way most men did. It may not seem so at first reading, but Mill’s Statement Repudiating the Rights of Husbands is really quite romantic. Mill understand what is truly best for his wife and that is allowing her to have a say in her own life. Very few husbands would have done this during this time which makes there relationship quite the special one, because he wanted to make sure his wife “retains in all respects whatever the absolute freedoms of action, freedoms of disposal of herself…as if no such marriage has taken place” (527). He realizes that his wife is indeed an equal to men, which for the time was groundbreaking.