 To the extent that the sexes in general exhibit different character traits, these traits are the product of upbringing into stereotypes, rather the justification for such stereotypes. So too for differences that are claimed to exist naturally between the races, and to justify the authority of one set of individuals over another (The Negro Question, XII: 93). With the growth of equality that came with a dominant middle class, Mill held, these forms of oppression stood out all the more clearly, and the time was therefore ripe to dismantle such practices of discrimination.