# Chapter II: The Marriage Contract and Legal Subordination explained — The Subjection of Women

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

## What happens

Mill examines the marriage contract as the central institution of women's subordination, arguing that it legally renders the wife a bond-servant to her husband. He traces the historical origins of marriage from force and sale to its current legal form, critiques the inequality of property rights, and advocates for equality before the law as essential for moral cultivation and justice.

## Themes in this chapter

### Legal Subordination of Women

Mill details how the marriage contract legally subordinates wives to husbands, making them bond-servants with no independent rights.

### Marriage as Bondage

Marriage is described as the only remaining legal bondage, with the wife's position worse than that of slaves in some legal systems.

### Equality and Justice

Mill argues that equality before the law is the only means to make marriage consistent with justice and to foster moral cultivation.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The author argues for equality in marriage and critiques the legal subordination of women.

### Her Master

The husband is described as the legal master of the wife, with power over her property and person.

### The Romans

Roman law is cited as allowing slaves a peculium, contrasting with the wife's worse position under English common law.

### Christianity

Christianity is discussed as having a theory of equality but sanctioning institutions that perpetuate subordination.

### The Greeks

The free republics of antiquity are mentioned as examples where equality was limited to free male citizens.

## Key lines

> I believe that equality of rights would abate the exaggerated self-abnegation which is the present artificial ideal of feminine character, and that a good woman would not be more self-sacrificing than the best man: but on the other hand, men would be much more unselfish and self-sacrificing than at present, because they would no longer be taught to worship their own will as such a grand thing that it is actually the law for another rational being.

Mill argues that equal rights would reduce women's excessive self-sacrifice and make men more unselfish, as they would stop being taught to idolize their own will as law for others.

_Mill connects equality to moral improvement for both sexes._

> The wife is the actual bond-servant of her husband: no less so, as far as legal obligation goes, than slaves commonly so called. She vows a lifelong obedience to him at the altar, and is held to it all through her life by law.

Mill states that legally, a wife is as much a bond-servant to her husband as any slave, bound by a vow of lifelong obedience enforced by law.

_This directly compares marriage to slavery._

> The equality of married persons before the law, is not only the sole mode in which that particular relation can be made consistent with justice to both sides, and conducive to the happiness of both, but it is the only means of rendering the daily life of mankind, in any high sense, a school of moral cultivation.

Mill asserts that legal equality in marriage is the only way to make it just and happy for both, and it is essential for moral education through daily life.

_Equality is framed as foundational for moral development._

## Links

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