Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860-1935 By Muhammad Shahmir Khan and Zaid Shaikh

General Background Born: July 3, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. Grew up in poverty mainly due to her father abandoning the family Had a very irregular and limited amount of education. Only had one sibling: a brother. Her mother was unable to support her children. They often had to live with her father's aunts.

Early Life Married to Charles W. Stetson, whom she had one daughter with. Suffered greatly during her marriage because she despised domestic life and was diagnosed with melancholia (extreme depression) Marriage ended in a divorce in 1894 and her husband married one of her close friends which became a public scandal at the time.

Early Career After her divorce became a door to door soap saleswoman for a small while. She also became active in organizing social reform movements. She used her marriage as motivation for much of her inspirations including her very famous short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

“and she is all the time trying to climb through “and she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb though that pattern” – Gilman

Professional Career Her career launched when she began lecturing on nationalism. She gained the public eye with her first volume of poetry, “In This Our World”, published in 1893. As a successful lecturer who relied on giving speeches as a source of income, she became famous along with her social circle of similar minded activists. Her first book was “Art Gems For the Home and Fireside”, 1888. In 1894-95, she served as an editor for a magazine called "The Impress". She gained international spotlight for her book about sexual relations and economics in American life named, “ Woman in Economics” (1898).

Late Life And Cause of Death In 1900, Gilman had married for the second time. She wed her cousin George Gilman, and the two stayed together until his death in 1934. Next year, she discovered that she had inoperable breast cancer. Charlotte Perkins Gilman committed suicide on 17th August, 1935. She left a note that said: "When all usefulness is over, when one is assured of unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one. I have preferred chloroform to cancer."

Sources “Charlotte Perkins Gilman." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2017. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.