Sociological Theory in the Classical Era: Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) and The Feminist Perspective

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) and The Feminist Perspective

The labor of women in the house, certainly, enables men to produce more than they otherwise could; and in this way women are economic factors in society. But so are horses.(Gilman 1898/1998:7)

Best known for her short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” Gilman was a woman who wrote thousands of works, from short journalism to book length discussions of the social realities of women’s lives to poetry. Her book, Women and Economics was hailed as a major accomplishment and re-published in several languages; Vassar college even used it as a textbook for a short time. Gilman’s major concern during her lifetime was feminism– women’s suffrage as well as women’s economic independence. She also self-published a magazine titled, The Forerunner, for seven years; the magazine is an incredible collection of thought and ideas and an example of how driven she was.

Click here to view a Powerpoint Presentation on Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Cyberspace

We have done our best to check each link, however, due to the constantly changing nature of the web, we cannot be responsible for the content of web sites external to this course (those not on either the UTPB web server or this courses server). External Web sites are provided as reference only. Content and links are not endorsed by UT Permian Basin, or The University of Texas System Administration. Please e-mail me with any problems or broken links you may find.

TIP: I would click on the “refresh” button a couple of times before giving up if I did not get to the page desired, if I were you.

Surfing the following sites will give you a taste of what is to follow. When you return to the main course menu, click on your reference section you will find a wide range of sites suggested, which certainly only touch the tip of the iceberg of what exists out there in cyberspace. So, do alert us to new and interesting sites.

• Charlotte Anne Perkins Gilman
  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/233816/Charlotte-Anna-Perkins-Gilman (Links to an external site.)
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  http://www.biography.com/people/charlotte-perkins-gilman-9311669 (Links to an external site.)
• A Sociological Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~sociology/journal/Vol62PDFS/Salinas.pdf (Links to an external site.)

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/4942_Edles_Chapter_5.pdf (Links to an external site.)
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
  http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper101.html