Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Feminism

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Recommended: 19th century women's oppression

The adversity women endured in a patriarchal society during the nineteenth century gave birth to female feminism. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the leading feminist during that time. Gilman strived for the oppressed women during the “Victorian Age”, she dedicated her life to social reform believing ever women should have equality. She opened the door for every day women to become involved and to be the masters of their own destiny. The subjugation Gilman faced in the nineteenth century as well as her own experience with postpartum depression greatly influenced her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Gilman lived in a time of American history where women were subjugated against and using her own life experience, she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, during the American Civil War. After the war, America changed drastically and Gilman was at the forefront of that change. The Industrial Revolution soon took place after the war. The men who no longer fought on the battlefield began to integrate into the workforce. According to Carol Hymowitz who wrote A History of Women in America “The business of business took middle-class men away from their homes, leaving women alone in them. Women of the middle class were isolated from the world of men a commerce.” Women continued to do traditional work such as cooking, cleaning, making cloths and caring for children. Because the men earned money and the women did not, women’s work was not considered “real work” (History).This was the beginning of the inequality among sexes.

Gilman watched and observed the world around her as men portrayed women as nothing more than simple house-wives. Gilman was outraged by laws which made wives property of their husbands,...

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Works Cited

Norton, Mary Beth. Major Problems in American Women’s History. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Health, 1989. p202.Print>

Hymowitz, Carol, and Michaele Weissman. A History of Women in America. New York: Bantam Books, 1978. p64. Print>

Johnson, Greg. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Short Stories for Students. Vol.1. p289. Print>

Beck, Cheryl, and Jeanne Driscoll. Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders. Saubury, Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2006. p83. Print>

http://lion.chadwyck.com/searchFulltext.do?id=BIO003857&divLevel=0&queryId=../session/13 36535002_12933&trailId=1369532E38F&area=ref&forward=critref_ft. Chadwych, Healy. Literature Online. Criticism & Reference: Full Text.2001.May 2, 2012.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/postpartum-depression/DS00546. Mayo Claim Staff. Postpartum Depression. June 3, 2010. May 2, 2012

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