Blog Six

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a very interesting woman. She’s covered in courses such as sociology, history, and economics. She believed that certain roles in society for women could stunt a woman’s creative and personal development. How can a woman achieve self-actualization if she were cooped up in her home? A woman, simultaneously, has to depend on a man’s income because she’s financially dependent on him, which results in an inferior status. Since there was a visible division of labor along gender lines, women were plagued with the duty of the household. Gilman dissects the roles of men and women, which was unheard of for a woman of her time to do so.

The most interesting part of Gilman’s sociology, to me, is her public and private sphere theory and also the androcentric culture she was witnessing. The public sphere is dominated by men. Men work in this sphere and interact in this sphere, a sphere outside of the home. A female dominates the private sphere, a more intimate secluded sphere. She came up with a geography to oppression. She was emphasizing that every perspective was through a male viewpoint. Males dominated society. This androcentric culture reinforced and maintained a lot of gender roles, where a woman is basically a domestic servant in her own home while her husband worked for the family. Male positions held power and authority, and what power did women possess?

In my history of women class this semester, we talked about Gilman. She was very critical of women’s domestic role. She was concerned that being a wife and a mother was just not going to cut it for women…they longed for something more. She was a member of Heterodoxy. This was basically the first feminist organization in the United States for radical feminist members. It’s interesting because this term meant the opposite of orthodox. It was unorthodox, very atypical, but Gilman herself believed in unorthodox views in society for a woman. She should be given more credit and mentioned more often in courses than she is. I watched this youtube clip on some facts from her life. “The Life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman” is a well-made clip. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0VYTV_ee2E). 

Facts I learned about Charlotte Gilman:

-She was the niece of Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Isabella Beecher Hooker, all very strong and influential women of their time

-After she gave birth to her daughter, she suffered from postpartum depression

-She was a big proponent of Nationalism

-After she divorced her first husband, she married her cousin, but he died young of a cerebral hemorrhage

-After her cousin/husband passed, she moved to the west coast to be near her estranged daughter

-She was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and suffered from it for three years before she committed suicide by overdosing on chloroform

Her life was too short.