TITLE Mariah McCurry Mrs.Knutsen 1102-55      Page Break Abstract This research paper discusses the issues relating to women equality in the practice of medicine as well as the treatment of women with mental illness during the late nineteenth century and compares it to the way today’s society handles such phenomenon’s. It includes the roles of patients with illness’s as well as physicians who treated them. This paper also offers insight of women’s’ rights as well as their role in marriage. Page Break Social issues have appeared all over the world affecting men and women of all races, class, and beliefs. Some believe the presence of social classes is the cause of discrimination …show more content…
to others, yet there are obvious records of oppression of female power within all classes from roles in the family home to rights to participate in their countries government. Within the nineteenth century, women have progressively made their way towards accomplishing equality for all by involving themselves in the studies and career positions that were prominently held by men such as attending universities, achieving degrees becoming doctors and scientists, and working in all career fields. With great determination, women all over were able to overcome the discrimination from men, who believed universities and medical practices were not places for the involvement of women, and other women, who felt those who were attempting to pursue a career like so were stepping out of line, to gain a place in the workforce as well as gain respect from their peers. Although there have been many changes throughout the past couple centuries, a major change from the nineteenth century to today’s society includes the perception of illness and women’s rights to medicine. Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex in 1949 as a foundational piece for the feminist philosophy and dealt with the treatment of women throughout history.
She described the role between gender and sex as “One is not born, but becomes a woman.” With this understanding, she discusses the shortcomings and lack of rights that women face, and furthered the argument for their liberation. But even more than fifty years before The Second Sex publication, another well-known advocate for women’s rights published a short-story titled “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story from 1892 touches on numerous subjects pertaining to women’s rights; such as their access to medicine, counseling, and care, their role both in marriage and society, and mental health. The short-story is a collection of journal diaries narrated by the unnamed woman during her husband and their stay at a colonial mansion. The time spent there is to recover from her recent “slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman). The misdiagnosis was just one example of many maltreatments during her downward spiral into depression. She is pushed to the edge of her mental state because of her solitary state and her remedies to her “nervous depressions,” which was to “take phosphates… tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and [she is] absolutely forbidden to work” (Gilman). Although she admitted her doctor’s treatments were ineffective, her husband dismissed her saying she was looking better by the day not understanding the intensity of mental illness. This fiction is actually a semi-autobiographical account of Gilman’s own troubles with depression was written to influence her society’s view towards women’s physical, emotional, and mental
wellbeing. In the late nineteenth century, women were oppressed the right to study medicine and have the right to seek proper council. Those who needed medical help were only granted with the care that deemed fit by their husbands and male physicians; those who wanted to involve themselves in the research of medicine and becoming a doctor were faced with the difficulties of men accepting them into the male dominant world. Women such as Elizabeth Blackwell and Lydia Folger Fowler opened the doors for women to study medicine and become more involved in the medical world. “[Elizabeth Blackwell] was the first woman to ever receive a degree from an American medical school, the founder of the first hospital run solely by woman, and the founder of one of the earliest medical colleges for women” (Elizabeth Blackwell). When Elizabeth Blackwell moved to Philadelphia to apply for medical school, in 1847, the application process “forced Blackwell to confront the institutional prejudices of the day” (Elizabeth Blackwell). Blackwell was rejected by several schools and finally was accepted into Geneva Medical College because the all-male student body thought the women applicant submission was a joke and continued to accept her application. She experienced “scorn” from her community and students alike because of what they believed were “brash and unfeminine behavior” for pursuing training in the medical field (Elizabeth Blackwell). Blackwell’s focus on the importance of preventative care in the form of improved hygiene and her diligent studies earned her her medical degree on January 23, 1849, where she became the “first women in the United States to ever earn such and honor and was ranked first in her graduating class” (Elizabeth Blackwell). Elizabeth Blackwell’s major achievement was the breakthrough in the process of opening the field of medicine to women and marks her as a pioneer in the fight for a woman’s right to becoming a practicing physician. In the twenty-first century, women have more rights and respect throughout the world in the workplace, home-life, and education. However, looking over some statistics would say otherwise. For example, graphs.net states that out of 781 million illiterate adults in the world, about 64% of whom are women. Men vs. Women Interesting Statistics claims that on average, women make 74.96% of men’s wages all over the world. Although full equality has not been accomplished throughout the world women of all ages have the right to medicine and council. With better understanding of mental illnesses as well as more physical diseases, women are provided with the care they need whether it is assisted living, medication, or psychological counseling. The stigma of mental illness is diminishing exponentially; however, there are those who still believe that mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia are just minor imbalances. END OF TODAYS SOICIAL ISSUES- However, there has been much progress made since the late-nineteenth century. These advancements in women’s rights has led society to deal with them in different ways. Still to this day women face forms of oppression, some which can be compared and contrasted in the writing of The Yellow Wallpaper. Compare and Contrast Conclusion- With support of novels written in late nineteenth century and research of today’s society, one can be aware of the great progression towards knowledge of science and gender equality society has made as a whole Page Break Annotated Bibliography The Second Sex The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper is a fictional short story written by Emily Gilman which involves a psychologically sick woman who is not given proper care for her sickness. Gilman explains that the fictitious character is based of of Gilman's own experience of nervous depression; however, Gilman states she has never had hallucinations. The story is a collection of journals written by the narrator, who is possibly named Jane, and her account of seeking for recovery in the country estate. The narrator's lack of medical attention results in herself destruction. Ford, Bonnie L. "Lydia Folger Fowler." The Nineteenth Century. Ed. John Powell. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem, 2007. 812-13. Print. Great Lives from History. Ford, Bonnie L. "Elizabeth Blackwell." The Nineteenth Century. Ed. John Powell. Vol. 1. Pasadena: Salem, 2007. 248-49. Print. The Great Lives from History. Page Break Work Cited Ford, Bonnie L. "Lydia Folger Fowler." The Nineteenth Century. Ed. John Powell. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem, 2007. 812-13. Print. Great Lives from History. Ford, Bonnie L. "Elizabeth Blackwell." The Nineteenth Century. Ed. John Powell. Vol. 1. Pasadena: Salem, 2007. 248-49. Print. The Great Lives from History. http://www.dol.gov/odep/pdf/NTAR-AgingWorkforceHealthCare.pdf
Discrimination in the work place is a social problem in itself because it discourages people from going outside
Throughout the late 1800s Americans were workaholics, constantly working in order to make a living for their families at home. Women stayed home and took care of the house as well as the children. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the late 1800s.The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no stranger to the hysteria that took over women in the 19th century. According to Mary Ellen Snodgrass, after her own postpartum emotional collapse and treatment in 1887, Gilman knew about the situation women were experiencing (“Gilman”). All the pressure of working and raising children affected all Americans, but society blamed the nervous depression mainly on women because they were women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her own life experience and illness that she went through and how women were treated during the 1800’s.
When first reading the gothic feminist tale, “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one might assume this is a short story about a women trying to save her sanity while undergoing treatment for postpartum depression. Gilman herself had suffered post-natal depression and was encouraged to undergo the “rest cure” to cure her hysteria. The treatment prescribed to Gilman resulted in her having a very similar experience as the narrator in the short story. The “perfect rest” (648), which consisted of forced bed rest and isolation sparked the inspiration for “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story involving an unreliable narrator, became an allegory for repression of women. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman illustrates the seclusion and oppression of women in the nineteenth century society by connecting the female imprisonment, social and mental state, and isolation to the objects in and around the room.
Elizabeth Blackwell was notably one of the most influential people to both medicine and women’s rights. Although her most famous achievement was being the first woman to graduate from medical school, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell's accomplishments did not end there, she devoted her life to helping others-both in healing and in education, and also with the help of colleagues founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. She was one of the most influential women of her time.
The Yellow Wallpaper, Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is comprised as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by a woman who has been confined to a room by her physician husband who he believes suffers a temporary nervous depression, when she is actually suffering from postpartum depression. He prescribes her a “rest cure”. The woman remains anonymous throughout the story. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in the room, and engages in some outrageous imaginations towards the wallpaper. Gilman’s story depicts women’s struggle of independence and individuality at the rise of feminism, as well as a reflection of her own life and experiences.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story told from the first person point of view of a doctor's wife who has nervous condition. The first person standpoint gives the reader access only to the woman’s thoughts, and thus, is limited. The limited viewpoint of this story helps the reader to experience a feeling of isolation, just as the wife feels throughout the story. The point of view is also limited in that the story takes places in the present, and as a result the wife has no benefit of hindsight, and is never able to actually see that the men in her life are part of the reason she never gets well. This paper will discuss how Gilman’s choice of point of view helps communicate the central theme of the story- that women of the time were viewed as being subordinate to men. Also, the paper will discuss how ignoring oneself and one’s desires is self-destructive, as seen throughout the story as the woman’s condition worsens while she is in isolation, in the room with the yellow wallpaper, and her at the same time as her thoughts are being oppressed by her husband and brother.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the reader is treated to an intimate portrait of developing insanity. At the same time, the story's first person narrator provides insight into the social attitudes of the story's late Victorian time period. The story sets up a sense of gradually increasing distrust between the narrator and her husband, John, a doctor, which suggests that gender roles were strictly defined; however, as the story is just one representation of the time period, the examination of other sources is necessary to better understand the nature of American attitudes in the late 1800s. Specifically, this essay will analyze the representation of women's roles in "The Yellow Wallpaper" alongside two other texts produced during this time period, in the effort to discover whether Gilman's depiction of women accurately reflects the society that produced it.
The “Yellow Wall Paper “ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression.
The unnamed narrator finds herself trapped within a large room lined with yellow wallpaper and hidden away from all visitors by her husband-physician John. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a summer spent in the large ancestral hall to find healing through rest turns into the manic changes of her mind. The overbearing nature of her husband inspires a program designed to make her better; ironically, her mind takes a turn for the worse when she believes the wallpaper has come to life. In Janice Haney-Peritz’s “Monumental Feminism and Literature’s Ancestral House: Another Look at ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ ”, she tells that until 1973, Gilman’s story was not seen with a feminist outlook. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was misunderstood and unappreciated when it was published. The patriarchal attitudes of men in this era often left women feeling they had no voice and were trapped in their situations. Although originally interpreted as a horror of insanity, this initial perspective misses the broad, provocative feminist movement that Gilman supported. With the changes in perspective, over time this work has come to have a voice for women and the husband-wife relationship through the theme of feminism.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a 19th century, journalist from Connecticut. She was also a feminist. Gilman was not conservative when it came to expressing her views publically. Many of her published works openly expressed her thoughts on woman’s rights. She also broke through social norms when she chose to write her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892, which described her battle with mental illness. These literary breakthroughs, made by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, help us see that the 19th century was a time of change for women.
Advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men, Charlotte Perkins Gilman speaks to the “female condition” in her 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by writing about the life of a woman and what caused her to lose her sanity. The narrator goes crazy due partially to her prescribed role as a woman in 1892 being severely limited. One example is her being forbidden by her husband to “work” which includes working and writing. This restricts her from begin able to express how she truly feels. While she is forbidden to work her husband on the other hand is still able to do his job as a physician. This makes the narrator inferior to her husband and males in general. The narrator is unable to be who she wants, do what she wants, and say what she wants without her husband’s permission. This causes the narrator to feel trapped and have no way out, except through the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom.
"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?" (Gilman 1). Many women in the 1800's and 1900's faced hardship when it came to standing up for themselves to their fathers, brothers and then husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", is married to a physician, who rented a colonial house for the summer to nurse her back to health after her husband thinks she has neurasthenia, but actually suffers from postpartum depression. He suggested the 'rest cure'. She should not be doing any sort of mental or major physical activity, her only job was to relax and not worry about anything. Charlotte was a writer and missed writing. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is significant to literature in the sense that, the author addresses the issues of the rest cure that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell prescribed for his patients, especially to women with neurasthenia, is ineffective and leads to severe depression. This paper includes the life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in relation to women rights and her contribution to literature as one of her best short story writings.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s tantalizing short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the horrifying tale of a nineteenth century woman whose husband condemns her to a rest cure, a popular approach during the era to treat post-partum depression. Although John, the unnamed narrator’s husband, does not truly believe his wife is ill, he ultimately condemns her to mental insanity through his treatment. The story somewhat resembles Gilman’s shocking personal biography, namely the rest cure she underwent under the watchful eye of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, two years after the birth of her daughter, Katherine. Superficially, the rest cure the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" endures loosely replicates Gilman’s personal anguish as she underwent such a treatment. More complexly, however, the story both accentuates and indirectly criticizes the oppression women faced in both marriage and motherhood.
In the operation of the healthcare system, gender plays a central role. Gender discrimination in the healthcare exists either in the field of education, workplace or while attending to the patients. Interestingly, as opposed to other areas where discrimination lies heavily to a particular gender; gender inequality in health happens to both women and men. Gender inequality in the health care service negatively affects the quality of care given and perpetuates patient biases to a gender. Also, the gender disparities in the field of health assists researchers and practitioners to study conditions and their probable manifestations within both sexes.