The School of Virtues

Looking at some prominent feminist receptions of Mill’s gender politics, Chapter 4 argues that much of the literature merges an assessment of Mill with an assessment of liberal feminism writ large. Against this practice, the uncertain strategies identified in Chapter 3 are brought in to highlight the complexities of Mill’s feminist politics, apart from his ideological label. The chapter shows that uncertainty generates a particular set of political anxieties for Mill, revolving around a desire to expand (rather than contract) the possibilities for “man as a progressive being”; but it also prohibits Mill from taking a determinative approach toward obtaining such possibilities. Though Mill offers a radical critique of sex inequality in the nineteenth century, calling for the political enfranchisement of women and their emancipation from the confines of the household, he simultaneously enacts cautionary caveats—even reversals. On issues of divorce and women’s employment beyond the household for instance, Mill’s fears about the unintended consequences of women’s social and political liberation take root. In effect, despite Mill’s support for sex equality, his approach to reform is inflected by uncertainties about the direction and effects of making broad structural changes to achieve it.