The Two Harriets: Two Women Defying (Pre-)Victorian Conventions – A Comparative Analysis of the Life, Thought and Influence of Harriet Lewin Grote 1792–1878) and Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858)
The Two Harriets: Two Women Defying (Pre-)Victorian Conventions – A Comparative Analysis of the Life, Thought and Influence of Harriet Lewin Grote 1792–1878) and Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858)

Summary/Abstract: The two Harriets may be regarded as true manifestations of what women were capable of doing in a marriage of equals despite the lack of proper education. Harriet Taylor, especially in light of her relationship with and inspiration for John Stuart Mill, has received ample attention from scholars in sharp contrast to her contemporary, nearly as radical, yet no friend, Harriet Grote. Having been a largely self-educated follower of Benthamite Utilitarianism herself, Grote not only earned the title ‘The Queen of the Radicals’ from early 1820’s until the disillusionment of the group in 1839, but she was one of the first thinking women, if not the very first the young Mill could meet and discourse with. By contrasting the two radical thinkers’ lives, experiences and thoughts on the situation of women and the offered remedies, the present essay aims to prove that John Stuart Mill’s ideas in his fight for above all the equality of women eventually coincided with those of Grote. Harriet Taylor, on the other hand, by endorsing the even more radical concept of female independence, defied not only all traditional Victorian vocations, but also her husband’s stern belief that an anticipated woman’s goal would continue to be sharing ‘fully and intelligently’ her husband’s occupations and interests.

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