Comment on the J. S. Mill’s ideas on women suffrage
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 Mill = earliest major male advocate of women’s vote → sex no basis for political rights
Route 2 restricted-franchise century → his stand = radical democratic intervention
vote tied to liberty → defend own rights / stand on own feet / reject being “taken care of” → exclusion shown as relic of old “might was right” order, unfit for modern age → capability proven (Joan of Arc, Elizabeth, Margaret of Austria) → utilitarian necessity: no progress while half the talent is shut out → matched by practice (MP; 1866 petition, 1500+ signatures, House of Commons)
the older defence Mill overturns — sex as a ground for exclusion / women merely “taken care of” / “might was right” → set aside as pre-modern
Route 1 women’s vote = a liberal right + a condition of wider human development
Route 2 equal right joined to social progress → half of society’s talent freed for public life
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
