Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860-1935

Charlotte Perkins was born July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Frederick Beecher Perkins and Mary Fitch Perkins. In 1869 her father deserted the family, and she and her mother went to live with his relatives. She received very little schooling but was profoundly affected by the views of her family. Influenced by the determination and self-reliance of her great aunts Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Catherine Beecher, and Isabella Beecher Hooker, as well as her mother, Perkins developed her views on "feminist convictions" and the desire to see social reform, as noted in "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." At an very early age she learned to be independent and worked as a teacher to support herself. In 1878 she attended the Rhode Island School of Design and became a commercial artist. In 1884 she married Charles Walter Stetson ,who was also a artist, and they gave birth to a daughter a year later. After the birth of her daughter, Perkins suffered from depression that would haunt her the rest of her life. After divorcing Stetson in 1890, she married George Houghton Gilman in 1900. 

Perkins was an American feminist and social activist, as well as a writer. She decided to move to Pasadena, California, in 1888, where she wrote her most famous short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper." From 1894 to 1895 she was active in planning the California Women's Congresses, as well as founding the Women's Peace Party. She was known as a feminist writer who expressed her views and beliefs in her novels, short stories, and nonfiction works.  Most of her writings were based on her own experiences that she faced from divorce to depression. In 1898 she published her best known nonfiction work, Women in Economics, which was called by critics a "feminist manifesto." In this book she argued that culture and not heredity has forced women to be dependent on men. She wrote on topics including sexual equality, socialism, and utopian societies. By writing her ideas down, she believed that she could help better society for women.  In her works women are depicted as struggling to achieve independence for themselves. She wrote utopian novels such as Moving on Mountain, Herland, and With Her in Outland.. In Herland she used not only fiction but satire to tell a story of three American men who enter an all-female society, in which women reproduce on their own. In 1932 Gilman learned that she had inoperable cancer. On August 17, 1935, she took her own life in Pasadena, but her legacy still continues through works such as "The Yellow Wallpaper." 

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is considered by many to be Gilman's best work of fiction. Gilman wrote the short story while she was on bed rest for her depression. Written in first person the story depicts a woman's apparent derangement. Gilman used some elements of Gothic fiction in "The Yellow Wallpaper," which features a country mansion and hints of the supernatural. The basis for the story was Gilman's own experience. At first the story was seen as a horror story or a case study on mental illness, but some critics today emphasize its feminist theme. Indeed, the article "Charlotte Perkins Gilman" explains that "most critics today see it as a feminist indictment of society's subjugation of women and praise its compelling characterization, complex symbolism, and thematic depth." The structure of the story is unique in that Gilman used short sentence as though she was writing down  her thoughts, perhaps recording them in a diary each day. The spaces in the story suggest breaks between days or situations. Throughout the story she is definitely going through an awakening, especially when she describes the woman coming through what she describes as bars on the paper. Gilman wrote from her own experiences to help other women in her predicament have some hope of overcoming obstacles. 

Bibliography

This Web site is put together by the Gale Group, which has a section dedicated to women who have made an impact in society. The site contains a biography and a section on "The Yellow Wallpaper." 

O'Neill, William L. Introduction. The Home. By Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1972. 

Major Works

• Concerning Children
• Forerunner
• Herland
• In This Air
• The Home
• "The Yellow Wallpaper"
• Women and Economics

Homes

• Hartford, Connecticut
• Pasadena, California
• San Francisco, California
• Chicago, Illinois

Family

• Father: Frederick Beecher Perkins
• Mother: Mary Fitch Perkins
• Great aunts: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catherine Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker
• Husband: Charles Walter Stetson (divorced in 1890)
• Daughter: Katherine Stetson
• Husband: George Houghton Gilman

Careers

• social activist
• commercial artist
• feminist
• lecturer
• teacher
• publisher
• writer

Chronology