A different approach to the positioning of women within classical economics thought: John Stuart Mill

J.S. Mill has an important status within classical economic thought in that he was the first thinker to deal with gender inequities. In his works, he argues that a fair world can be created within the social realm, employment, wages, education. Therefore, he maintained that women?s dependency on men could be terminated. J.S.Mill?s analyses has been insufficient since he held patriarchal beliefs, was committed to the capitalist society and thus fell short of coming up with suggestions that would produce structural changes within the system. He is considered to be a starting point feminist discussions about secondary status of women, despite his theoretical shortcomings: that he did not mention the economic role of women?s domestic work; he located them within service sector; that he argued that married women had already made their occupational choices and ultimately did not offer a solution that would go beyond women?s secondary status. Along with these, it is being observed that mainstream economics ignores J.S.Mill?s views and keeps dealing with issues as it always used to.