SOURCE: "Florence Nightingale and J.S. Mill Debate Women's Rights," in The Journal of British Studies, Vol. XXI, No. 2, Spring, 1982, pp. 118-38.

In the following essay, Pugh discusses the correspondence of Nightingale and John Stuart Mill as it reveals the thoughts of both individuals on the subject of women's rights.

In Florence Nightingale's correspondence a series of letters to and from J.S. Mill treat a different subject than her usual correspondence with government officials, health and sanitation reformers, and hospital administrators in many parts of the world. Although it was never her intention when she initiated the exchange of letters, she and Mill quickly became involved in a controversy concerning the role of women.

Interwoven with some religious and philosophical matters, the Nightingale-Mill correspondence which falls into two periods, 1860 and 1867, is essentially a debate on women's rights. One debate concerns terminology and hinges on the entire validity...