Charlotte Perkins Gilman Research Paper

This view was very conflicting to those of the Progressive era. During this time period, suffragist were working very hard to get those past stereotypes thrown out the window. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Author of “The Yellow Paper” and feminist activist, also wrote about her struggle with mental illness. She was directly affected by these misunderstood diagnosing of mental illness that differed from male to female. Gilman herself wrote and studied about this inequality in many of her life works. She was intrigued in why women were so socially criticized, in Ann Jane’s The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader, she wrote about Gilman’s ideas on this topic, “Gilman believed that women’s subordination started with the expropriation by men of the agricultural surplus women produced, limiting women’s full expression and autonomy and therefore dehumanizing them… men appropriated women’s work and by forcing them to depend economically on male authority, demeaned them” Gilman 's testimonies were taking very seriously because of her undeniable wit but later because of her shocking literature. Gilman is also known for her intellectual work in Women and Economics that was published in 1892. She was ahead of her time and seemed to foreseen what was to come with women’s advancement during the progressive era.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born into poverty, her father abandoned the family as a child which greatly hurt her education. She only had 4 years of formal education. Gilman is remembered today as a poet, an author, a feminist and a social activist.

For Gilman, the conventional nineteenth-century middle-class marriage, with its rigid distinction between the “domestic” functions of the female and the “active” work of the male, ensured that women remained second-class citizens. The story reveals that this gender division had the effect of keeping women in a childish state of ignorance and preventing their full development. John’s assumption of his own superior wisdom and maturity leads him to misjudge, patronize, and dominate his

Gilman’s short stories is a warning to her readers about the consequences of fixed gender roles assigned by male-dominated societies: the man’s role being that of the husband and rational thinker, and the woman’s role being that of the dutiful wife who does not question her husband’s authority. And despite differences in levels of domination the broad principles remain the same, i.e. men are in control. The nature of this control may differ. So it is necessary to understand the system, which keeps women dominated and subordinate, and to unravel its workings in order to work for women’s development in a systematic way. In the modern world where women go ahead by their merit, patriarchy there creates obstacles for women to go forward in society. Because patriarchal institutions and social relations are responsible for the inferior or secondary status of women. Patriarchal society gives absolute priority to men and to some extent limits women’s human rights also. Patriarchy refers to the male domination both in public and private spheres. In this way, feminists use the term ‘patriarchy’ to describe the power relationship between men and women as well as to find out the root cause of women’s

Soon after her daughter Katharine’s birth, Gilman fell into post-partum depression and sought professional help. She went to a very well-known doctor for this and thought she would get the right help. The treatment prescribed to her was actually horrid, instead of curing her, it drove her to a significantly worse, life-threatening depression. Four years into their marriage, Gilman and Stetson separated, a very uncommon thing, especially in the late 1800’s, but did not officially divorce until 1894. Subsequently, Gilman sent Katharine to Pasadena, California where she would reside with her father and his new wife, whom Gilman was close to and said she was, perhaps, an even better mother than her. According to The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she reported in her memoir that she was happy for the couple, since Katharine's "second mother was fully as good as the first, [and perhaps] better in some ways" (Living 163). Gilman wanted Katharine to know her father unlike she did growing up. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s depression played a major role in her life because it led to her creation of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and how it was a semi-autobiographical short story. She included her personal experience because it added more depth and meaning to the story of how the treatment actually made her feel. The Rest Cure was typically prescribed for women who experienced

What point was Gilman making in this story? What did she identify as the gender inequalities of the day?

During the next few years, she visited national women’s rights conventions, traveled throughout the United States as well as England, and met fellow reformers. By 1900, she had became a famous activist and writer. The same year, she married her cousin, Houghton, and started caring for her daughter again. Despite her happiness in her second marriage, Gilman still pictured a life without gender roles in the society. She used this vision and her feelings to write powerful pieces about women and their oppression. She published her own magazine, The Forerunner, from 1909-1916. Her most famous story from the magazine was “Herland” which “envisioned a completely female society in which the institution of the family does not exist only individuals and the community” (Wlladaver-Morgan 4). While she did not write “The Yellow Wallpaper” during this time, it is still representative of the feminist movement and the suppression of women.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a story of a mid-nineteenth century woman placed into isolation as her husband’s cure for her diagnosis. However, the tale presents a much deeper meaning when analyzed through its historical context, and when Gilman’s own connections to the plot are explored. Gilman’s short story exhibits the consequences of fixed gender norms in a male dominated society where women had little to no authority. Such restraint and denial of self expression resulted in the emotional suffering and loss of individuality in many women, much like the narrator in the story.

Gilman’s most famous work was “The Yellow Wallpaper”, since it stirred quite a response from a large number of people. After its publication in 1890, families began questioning the “rest care” treatment and countless women were saved from the insanity it causes. Gilman herself stated in her short article “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” that she was on the brink of insanity when she made the decision to

Among various studies from past and present, with the efforts of understanding the writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it is believed that she is one of the first influential sociologist of her time, with a better understanding of Gilman’s life and how her past changed her future with her short stories. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, as well as Women and economics: A study of economic relation between men and women as a factor in social evolution are still sparking conversation in today’s sociological world with the intent on understanding not just the feminist idea of her time, but how it actually coincides with current day.

Gilman’s audiences in the 19th century were bizarre to read such a book like Herland. Nobody really expected to read a novel about a world of only women and given male abilities. Women’s lives in the 19th century were not always as easy. They faced inequality, abuse, expectations and stereotypes. Gilman did not just wanted to write Herland for women, but wanted both genders to treat each other equally and have respect. It’s sadly to say but the stereotypes, unequally and expectations for women are still happing in our world today. We made some achievements through out the years but are still struggling to fight that equality that Gilman wanted in the 19th century.

Gilman’s novel was a utopia that illustrated how women were able to function without men. She stated her thesis in the introduction, for she believed that humans have the ability to change their societies and have the ability to control nature in a way that benefits them. Her main purpose for writing this monograph was to assert the feminist movement in the minds of non-feminist. Furthermore, her purpose also illustrated how women in the

Writer and social reformer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut. Gilman was a writer and social activist during the late 1800s and early 1900s. She had a difficult childhood. Her father, Frederick Beecher Perkins, abandoned the family, leaving Charlotte 's mother to raise two children on her own. Gilman moved around a lot as a result and her education suffered greatly for it. Gilman’s upbringing

Both Parson and my father’s ideas about the role of women and their perceived dependency on men encompasses common beliefs surrounding the roles of women, which Gilman theorized not only negatively impacted women but prevented society from being productive and developing. Rather than viewing women as only mothers and wives, Gilman’s writing came from a far more contemporary approach than both Parson and my father, where the progression and productivity of society is dependent on women’s financial and emotional emancipation from gender roles and men

Motherhood has changed throughout the world especially in today’s time. In the 20th century women tend to juggle many different aspects besides motherhood such as a job, school and their own responsibilities. In the novel Herland the men in the novel express motherhood differently than the basic norms. The women in the novel are not only expressed as doing the normal duties of a mother such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. In fact the women in the novel are shown doing jobs a man would do. In the novel Gilman created her own utopian society where females were superior and the roles