Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office: GHH 215
Hours: Hours: M, 12:00-1:00
T-Th 9:30-10:50 or by Appointment
Phone: ext 3230
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As we will see, at least some men were strong advocates for equal rights for women, long before women won the rights to vote. Such a man was the English philosopher, John Stuart Mill. Give yourself some time to read this, as the English is quite "Victorian". As you mark up your copy, Think of these things.
- Mill calls male attitudes towards women a "presumption". What does he mean by this, and this "In the first place, the opinion in favour of the present system, which entirely subordinates the weaker sex to the stronger, rests upon theory only; for there never has been trial made of any other: so that experience, in the sense in which it is vulgarly opposed to theory, cannot be pretended to have pronounced any verdict." Starting with "in other words" mark up with a sticky note, and indicate whether you agree or disagree with, written well over 100 years ago. Is there any evidence that this attitude still exists in our era? What do you think? Is there any reason why Roger Williams has never had a woman Chairman of the Board of Trustees? You might look at the online catalog and see what the proportion is on the Board of Trustees today? See if you can discover how many women we've had hold the office of President.
- Note where and how Mill compares women to slaves (keeping up the comparison we've been following recently in this class). What evidence does he give to support his claim? Remember that he's writing from the English point of view, and our previous writers on this subject have been writing about conditions in America.
- What does Pride have to do with all this?
- What are some of the methods by which men exert their "superiority" over women. Are some of them still in practice in our day? Follow this link and look up your state. If you're an international student, look up any state that interests you. Write a comment about what you find.
- Like some of our female writers Mill makes this point. "All men, except the most brutish, desire to have, in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing one, not a slave merely, but a favourite. What does he mean by this, and have things changed much in our day?
- What are some of the inhibitors which keep us from knowing each other well, whether as boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, or father/son or mother/daughter. Why did people in Mill's day behave this way, and do they still behave that way now? Is this harmful to good human relations? What do you think?
- Finally, near the end he writes, " It is not sufficient to maintain that women on the average are less gifted than men on the average, with certain of the higher mental faculties, or that a smaller number of women than of men are fit for occupations and functions of the highest intellectual character. It is necessary to maintain that no women at all are fit for them, and that the most eminent women are inferior in mental faculties to the most mediocre of the men on whom those functions at present devolve." Is this true, and if true, why? What do you think?