Abstract

The paper is presenting a revisionist account of Mill’s feminism that does not rely solely on The Subjection of Women, but also draws on Mill’s more radical writings on socialism. It will argue, against some feminist interpretations, that Mill is truly concerned with the exploitation of women and that he wants to raise women’s condition from being mere instruments in the world of production to being a partner in it. He shows a deep sense of the political value of a re-imagined family as a school for freedom, as just and as a means for self-development. In that sense, he anticipates the feminist slogan that “the personal is political”.