Born: 3 July 1860, United States
Died: 17 August 1935
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Charlotte Perkins Stetson
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Charlotte P. Gilman, an American speaker and writer on social and economic subjects. She was born at Hartford, Conn., and was married to C.W. Stetson in 1884 and Geo H. Gilman in 1990.
She has been a prominent lecturer in Europe and America, and is known especially for her interest in labor problems and for her advocacy of woman’s rights. In 1914 a series of lectures which she gave in New York City on The Larger Feminism gained unusual attention. Her writings include: Woman and Economics, Concerning Children, The Man-Made World, and Moving the Mountain.
IW note: Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, published in 1892, was groundbreaking for its depiction of women’s health — both physical and mental — and the prevailing attitudes around them. It was based on personal experience. After giving birth to her daughter, Gilman experienced postnatal depression. Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, considered a leading expert on women’s health at the time, prescribed a harsh “rest cure” — basically, bed rest and absolutely no work of any kind, which included reading, writing and painting. After three months, Gilman couldn’t take it anymore. Recognizing she was close to a complete psychological breakdown, she overruled Mitchell’s restrictions and wrote The Yellow Wallpaper, with additions and exaggerations to emphasise her criticisms. She also sought treatment from Mary Putnam Jacobi, one of the first modern women doctors, whose recommendation of physical and mental activity proved much more successful as a treatment.
If Mitchell had had his way, Gilman would never have written again. His instructions were to “Live as domestic a life as possible. Have your child with you all the time … Lie down an hour after each meal. Have but two hours’ intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live.” While it’s impossible to measure the full impact of her popular story, it likely saved other women from similar situations. Gilman later said The Yellow Wallpaper was “not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.” One mind it didn’t change, however, was Mitchell’s — she sent him a copy but never heard back. He continued prescribing his “rest cure” and as late as 1908 was trying to have entire hospitals devoted to the wretched “treatment.”