Harriet became indispensable to his thought, his developing humanity, and his determination to act. She led him to grasp the possibilities for men and women, and for all classes of society, of a progressive development of individuality as the main goal in life.

Harriet was a brilliant intellectual in her own right and changed both Mill’s life and his philosophy. MacFarlane (2018) summaries Taylor’s contribution to Mill’s work favourably, as follows: Mill and Taylor married in 1851, two years following the death of Taylor’s husband. Mill’s father particularly objected to the relationship, which ultimately led to Mill’s estrangement from his mother as well as his father. This was done in plain sight of Harriet’s husband John, and by even today’s standards this relationship would have been seen as scandalous. On meeting, Harriet and Mill were very much taken with each other, the friendship deepened and so began a romantic and intellectual partnership that was to produce some of Victorian Britain’s most radical work. The Taylors had three children but were estranged, although they would be seen out together. Harriet was at that time married to her husband John, a pharmacist she had met when she was eighteen and him thirty-nine.

She met political philosopher John Stuart Mill in 1830 after Mill had confronted his depression and resentment of his father, and began to hang out with London intellectuals. Harriet Taylor-Mill was born Harriet Hardy in London on 8 October 1807.

The subjection of women by js mill