Gilman
Cassandra Mello
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Sociology 300
4 March 2013 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born in 1860, was a female theorist who was called a utopian feminist. In the sense that she imagined a world for women in which they had power and were free to be their own person. While many theorist personal lives are not always important to their ideas, Gilman’s very much so is. After Gilman married her husband, and had a child, she went into post partum depression. The social milieu in this time period was that women were not equivalent to men at all. They weren’t as stable and they were very emotional and unreliable. When Gilman claimed post partum depression her husband, who was a doctor, ordered her to be confined to a room, to try and cure her, which did not work. During this time period that was an acceptable prescription for a women, and for a husband to do such a thing wasn’t frowned upon, it was more so encouraged to help the women to become sane again, as they were seen as crazy. In later years she divorced her husband and that’s when he writing and theory career really began. During her time period it was rare for women to divorce their husbands, and was not done often. Women didn’t really have a voice and weren’t warranted an opinion during this time period. Men had a right over women to treat them how they wanted and to do with them how they pleased; Gilman defines that as sexuo-economic relation. While women may have been smart they were constricted by the male dominate power in society. This time period was far from a time when women had a voice, and could express how they felt, and do as they wished. Gilman’s theory was that women could rise up in society, and she was going to prove that. She felt that women needed to have a place in the structure of society, or more so that they already had potential to be, but men were suffocating them. She felt that society was almost forgetting about women. They weren’t allowed to have most jobs, they couldn’t voice their
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Sociology 300
4 March 2013 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born in 1860, was a female theorist who was called a utopian feminist. In the sense that she imagined a world for women in which they had power and were free to be their own person. While many theorist personal lives are not always important to their ideas, Gilman’s very much so is. After Gilman married her husband, and had a child, she went into post partum depression. The social milieu in this time period was that women were not equivalent to men at all. They weren’t as stable and they were very emotional and unreliable. When Gilman claimed post partum depression her husband, who was a doctor, ordered her to be confined to a room, to try and cure her, which did not work. During this time period that was an acceptable prescription for a women, and for a husband to do such a thing wasn’t frowned upon, it was more so encouraged to help the women to become sane again, as they were seen as crazy. In later years she divorced her husband and that’s when he writing and theory career really began. During her time period it was rare for women to divorce their husbands, and was not done often. Women didn’t really have a voice and weren’t warranted an opinion during this time period. Men had a right over women to treat them how they wanted and to do with them how they pleased; Gilman defines that as sexuo-economic relation. While women may have been smart they were constricted by the male dominate power in society. This time period was far from a time when women had a voice, and could express how they felt, and do as they wished. Gilman’s theory was that women could rise up in society, and she was going to prove that. She felt that women needed to have a place in the structure of society, or more so that they already had potential to be, but men were suffocating them. She felt that society was almost forgetting about women. They weren’t allowed to have most jobs, they couldn’t voice their
Cited: Kessler, Carol Farley., and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Her Progress toward Utopia with Selected Writings. New York: Syracuse UP, 1995. Print. Ritzer, George. Classical Sociological Theory. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996. Print. Rudd, Jill, and Val Gough. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Optimist Reformer. Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1999. Print.