Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860-1935 By Kimberly Irwin

General Born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 3, 1860 Her father was Frederic Beecher Perkins, who was part of the famous New England Beecher family which included the novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe Her mother was Mary A. Fitch Gilman’s father deserted her family shortly after her birth Her mother struggled to support herself and her two kids and withheld from them all physical expressions of love Gilman described her childhood as painful and lonely

Professional Between 1880-1884, Gilman supported herself in Providence as a governess, art teacher, and designer of greeting cards She increasingly became aware of the injustices inflicted on women and began to write poems in which she developed her own views on women’s rights Gilman was a frequent contributor to the Boston Woman’s Journal Gilman led a double career as a writer and lecturer on women, labor, and social organization

Personal Life In May 1884, Gilman married artist Charles Stetson Gilman feared the difficulties of balancing the demands of being a wife, mother, and housekeeper with her ambition to be a writer Gilman had one daughter named Katherine Gilman fell into a severe depression and underwent a series of unusual treatments for it One treatment included total bed rest for several weeks and limited intellectual activity thereafter Her experience with depression is believed to have inspired her best-known short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892) In 1894, Gilman divorced Stetson, convinced that the marriage threatened her sanity

Evolution of Work In 1898, Gilman published Women and Economics, the book that earned her immediate celebrity and is considered her most important nonfiction work This powerful feminist manifesto argues that women’s economic dependency on men stunts not only the growth of women but that of the whole human species Gilman urged reforms of centralized nurseries in Concerning Children, 1900, and professionally staffed collective kitchens in The Home, 1904 In 1911, she published The Man Made World which stated that until women played a larger part in national and international life, social injustice and war would characterize industrialized societies The same year, her short story “Turned” appeared, taking on similar gender issues

In His Religion and Hers (1923), Gilman predicted that only when women influenced theology would the fear of death and punishment cease to be central to religious institutions and practices Her utopian novels—such as Moving the Mountains (1911), Herland (1915), and With Her in Ourland (1916)—offer vivid dramatizations of the social ills that result from a competitive economic system in which women are subordinate to men and accept their subordination

The End Gilman married her first cousin George Houghton Gilman in 1900 They lived in New York City and Norwich, Connecticut until his sudden death in 1934 Gilman then moved to Pasadena, California to live with her daughters family She committed suicide the next year after learning that she had inoperable breast cancer

Characteristics Resisted conventional values, especially about women socially and economically Produced a large body of polemical writings and feminist fiction Is known as a leading theoretician, speaker, and writer on women’s issues of her time Wrote quickly and carelessly to make a point

Influences Gilman lived at a time of tremendous upheaval in this country's history She was alive from the Civil War to Reconstruction and Industrial Revolution, and from the Women's Movement to the development of the major schools of the social sciences Unable to watch these events without scrutiny, she became a commentator on the evolving social order, especially on the status of women She was influenced by the sociologist Lester Ward and the utopian novelist Edward Bellamy

Sources Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 790-812. Print. "Charlotte Anna Perkins Stetson Gilman." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 10 July 2014. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society, n.d. Web. 10 July 2014.