Since Old Testament days discrimination against minorities and other groups has been the rule in history rather than the exception. Chief among these repressive attitudes has been the inferior social and political status of women. Mill offers compelling arguments against the disenfranchisement of women, the infringement of their property rights, and the second-class status they experienced within marriage. One of England's most influential social philosophers, Mill sets the keen sights of his critical, analytic eye on the socio-political justifications for gender supremacy in nineteenth-century Britain and, in doing so, he strikes a powerful blow for women's rights, the reverberations of which are still being felt today. A remarkable work, The Subjection of Women uses reason and common sense to take sexual discrimination to task.
