Charlotte Perkins Gilman Research Paper

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The life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman began on July 3, 1860, this was the day an inspiring, passionate, prominent American feminist activist and public figure was born. Gilman was born to her mother Mary Perkins and father Frederic Beecher Perkins. She had one brother, Thomas Adie, who was only 14 months older than Charlotte. Some months after Charlotte was born, Frederic, the provider and man of the house, decided to abandon the new family of four. Mary was no longer able to support her small family as she was a homemaker, so most often the family was with Marys’ fathers’ aunts, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Catharine Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe! Unbelievable, right? Clearly talent runs in the family. As some may know two of the three women are notable women of history, the most famous of the three Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. …show more content…

After the divorce, Charlotte moved to Pasadena, California and began her journey doing feminist, activist and reformist work. Gilman was far from the traditional woman, she believed that fathers had a right to be involved in their children’s life, that women had the right to vote and that the society she was living in needed to be reformed. In 1892 Perkins wrote her most famous literary work “The Yellow Wall Paper” about her experiences with post-partum depression. This short story has been included in many anthology books. “In 1894, Gilman sent her daughter east to live with her former husband and his second wife, Grace Ellery Channing, who was a close friend of Gilman's. Gilman 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 (knight, 163)." In 1893 Perkins mother passed away and she moved back to her home, thus meeting once again, her cousin, marrying in 1900 and staying together until their separation in 1922, this is when she moved back to Pasadena, California so she could be near her daughter once

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