J.S. Mill denounced the legal subjection of women as “wrong in itself” and as “one of the chief hindrances to human improvement” (1869)
Found in: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXI - Essays on Equality, Law, and Education
John Stuart Mill, the great 19th century English classical liberal, began his book on The Subjection of Women with the following unequivocal statement:
Women’s Rights
… the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other.