# Endnotes explained — The Subjection of Women

> Chapter companion for The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill.

## What happens

The endnotes provide citations and additional commentary, including a note on women rulers in Hindu principalities and a quote from Sir Joshua Reynolds on taste and art.

## Themes in this chapter

### Equality and Justice

The example of women rulers in Hindu principalities demonstrates natural capacity for governance, challenging assumptions of female inferiority.

### Education and Social Conditioning

Notes that these princesses had no political education, yet governed effectively, highlighting the role of social conditioning versus innate ability.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

Provides commentary and citations in the endnotes.

### The Greeks

Referenced indirectly through the context of historical examples.

## Key lines

> If a Hindu principality is strongly, vigilantly, and economically governed; if order is preserved without oppression; if cultivation is extending, and the people prosperous, in three cases out of four that principality is under a woman’s rule.

In Hindu states, good governance is often associated with female regents.

_Illustrates women's capability in leadership despite lack of formal education._

> He who invents with the most success, or dresses in the best taste, would probably, from the same sagacity employed to greater purposes, have discovered equal skill, or have formed the same correct taste, in the highest labours of art.

Good taste in fashion reflects the same mental faculties that produce great art.

_Sir Joshua Reynolds argues that skill in minor arts indicates potential for higher achievements._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/chapters/endnotes
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- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/chapters