About
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut, was a leading American feminist, writer, and social theorist. A great-niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe, she endured poverty after her father abandoned the family. Educated at the Rhode Island School of Design, she married artist Charles Walter Stetson in 1884 and divorced him in 1894. Her experience with postpartum depression and the 'rest cure' prescribed by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell inspired her most famous short story, 'The Yellow Wallpaper' (1892). Her essay Women and Economics (1898) established her as a major sociological thinker.
* 1860-07-03 — † 1935-08-17
Major works
- The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)short story
- Women and Economics (1898)nonfiction
- Herland (1915)novel
- The Home: Its Work and Influence (1903)nonfiction
- In This Our World (1893)poetry
Key milestones
- 1892Published her short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper' in The New England Magazine.
- 1898Published 'Women and Economics', her most influential work, translated into seven languages.
- 1909Founded the feminist magazine The Forerunner, which she wrote and edited alone until 1916.
Themes
FeminismDomestic economyMental healthSocial utopiaWomen's roles
Sources: radcliffe.harvard.edu · loa.org · sup.org