Charlotte Perkins Gilman Research Paper

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”.

Catherine and Isabella were educators, one a suffragist and the other an American school teacher. Surprisingly, Charlotte and her brother did not receive much schooling, mostly due to the sporadic life the family lived, Charlotte gained a total of only 4 years of education, this meant she would spend much of her time in the public library doing her own research, she naturally was a very intelligent and motivated individual, but she did not do well in a school setting. At the age of 18 Charlotte enrolled in college maintaining a job as a trade card (what is now known as a business card) artist and a tutor. Perkins also had other odd jobs during and after college such as a soap saleswoman. 6 years later the independent young woman accepted the marriage proposal of Charles Walter Stetson, the following year Katherine Beecher Stetson was born, little did Charlotte know, the events following her daughters birth would change her life forever. After the birth of Katherine, Charlotte experienced a very serious case of post-partum depression. In the 19th century women were claimed to be “carriers” of nervousness and hysteria, these were treated through the rest cure and vitamins and minerals (a treatment proven to make these cases worse), but this is exactly what her husband (under advice of a doctor) ordered her to do, with good intentions of course! “In 1888, Charlotte separated from her husband – a rare occurrence in the late nineteenth century. The two legally divorced in 1894 (knight, 408).” 1888 is also the year she wrote her very first book “Art Gems for the Home and Fireside”, Right before the finalization of the pairs’ divorce, she received a significant recognition for her first set of poetry “In This World”.

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

more. Ten years later at the age of 72 Gilman was diagnosed with breast cancer, as stated earlier Perkins was a progressive, she fought for the rights of men and women and believed in legal euthanasia for people who has incurable diseases. For this reason, she decided at the age of 75 to inhale chloroform to commit suicide. Gilman’s most certainly did not waste any of her precious life away. Gilman worked for women’s rights and oppressed peoples’ rights through the majority of her career as well as writing poems, 186 short stories, novels, dialogues, books and diaries. Among her wide range of work is also approximately 90 lectures that she gave between America and Europe.