ABSTRACT
John Stuart Mill is best known for his defense of the liberty of the individual—for making fundamental the liberty in the individual, as opposed to some theory of social rights, which he referred to as "monstrous" and "dangerous" in his most famous work, Essay on Liberty. Mill was the first major male thinker in the Western tradition to champion the rights of women, and to argue in word and deed for the equality of the sexes, especially in his essay On the Subjection of Women. Mill's advocacy of the rights of women and presentation of the obstacles to be overcome, as well as his critique of the social and legal context of women's subordination, follow from Essay on Liberty. In that earlier essay he sought to distinguish the legitimate purview of the state from the legitimate realm of the individual person.
