# Marriage as Bondage in The Subjection of Women

> Theme guide for The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill.

Mill critiques the institution of marriage, describing wives as legal bond-servants with no rights to property, children, or personal autonomy, and argues that marriage is the only remaining legal slavery.

## Where it surfaces

- [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/chapters/i): The chapter describes women's dependence on men as a 'primitive state of slavery' that has only been mitigated, not abolished.
- [Chapter II: The Marriage Contract and Legal Subordination](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/chapters/ii): Marriage is described as the only remaining legal bondage, with the wife's position worse than that of slaves in some legal systems.
- [Chapter IV: The Benefits of Equality and the Influence of Women](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/chapters/iv): Mill declares marriage the only remaining legal bondage, a monstrous contradiction to modern principles, and the sole case of human servitude after the abolition of negro slavery.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/themes/marriage_as_bondage
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/themes