Although the first major and systematic defense of women’s rights appeared as early as 1792 with Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman, it would be almost a century before the theme of women’s equality with men was seriously entertained as a result of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869). Wollstonecraft argued that women appeared different from men in moral character largely due to the deficient opportunities afforded them and the social expectation that they concern themselves with frivolity. She emphasized the importance of educating women consistent with their role as educators and caretakers of children, yet fell short of clearly defending a statement of the equality of the sexes, sometimes seeming to grant a natural superiority to men. In Mill’s work, the belief that women are by nature inferior to men was subjected to a powerful demand for empirical evidence. Echoing Wollstonecraft, he recognized that women appear inferior due to the differential social constraints acting on the sexes, and insisted that equality must be instituted in practice before women’s nature may be seen clearly enough to allow a fair comparison to men’s. He excoriated the then popular notion that social inequality was needed to safeguard the natural roles of women as caretakers and child bearers. No law, he noted, is needed to prevent women from doing what they naturally cannot but do, and if it is indeed in the best interest of society to have women serve as caretakers, such positions must be made appealing enough to be worth holding.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that Mill’s defense of women’s rights was more influential than Wollstonecraft’s because

A) she did not clearly argue for the equality of the sexes
B) his arguments more clearly articulated a need for empirical evidence
C) he was a man and his judgments were therefore more highly respected



2. In the context in which it is used in the passage, the word “excoriated” most nearly means

A) relished
B) appealed to
C) was appalled at
D) assailed
E) mocked



3. Select, by clicking in the passage itself, the sentence that states a claim later reiterated by another thinker.