The Man-Made World

About Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was an American author feminist and social reformer. Born in Hartford Connecticut Gilman was raised by her mother after her father abandoned his family to poverty. A single mother Mary Perkins struggled to provide for her son and daughter frequently enlisting the help of her estranged husbands aunts including Harriet Beecher Stowe the author of Uncle Toms Cabin. These early experiences shaped Charlottes outlook on gender and society inspiring numerous written works and a lifetime of activism. Gilman excelled in school as a youth and went on to study at the Rhode Island School of Design where in 1879 she met a woman named Martha Luther. The two were involved romantically for the next few years until Luther married in 1881. Distraught Gilman eventually married Charles Walter Stetson a painter in 1884 with whom she had one daughter. After Katharines birth Gilman suffered an intense case of post-partum depression an experience which inspired her landmark story The Yellow Wallpaper (1890). Gilman and Stetson divorced in 1894 after which Charlotte moved to California and became active in social reform. Gilman was a pioneer of the American feminist movement and an early advocate for womens suffrage divorce and euthanasia. Her radical beliefs and controversial views on raceGilman was known to support white supremacist ideologiesnearly consigned her work to history; at the time of her death none of her works remained in print. In the 1970s however the rise of second-wave feminism and its influence on literary scholarship revived her reputation bringing her work back into publication.