Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
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National Portrait Gallery Object Description
Born Hartford, Connecticut
During an age when social conventions limited women’s opportunities, author Charlotte Perkins Gilman exposed the psychological distress behind the sentimental facade of domesticity. In 1892, she published “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a short story about a woman confined to a single attic room to recuperate from “temporary nervous depression” and “a slight hysterical tendency.” Those labels were often applied to women whose limited scope of activity led to extreme frustration and boredom. Gilman herself, while suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth in 1885, had been forced into a mind-numbing “rest cure,” which only worsened her condition.
Following her divorce in 1894, Gilman gained international recognition for her book Women and Economics (1898), which argues that women’s liberty is dependent ...
During an age when social conventions limited women’s opportunities, author Charlotte Perkins Gilman exposed the psychological distress behind the sentimental facade of domesticity. In 1892, she published “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a short story about a woman confined to a single attic room to recuperate from “temporary nervous depression” and “a slight hysterical tendency.” Those labels were often applied to women whose limited scope of activity led to extreme frustration and boredom. Gilman herself, while suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth in 1885, had been forced into a mind-numbing “rest cure,” which only worsened her condition.
Following her divorce in 1894, Gilman gained international recognition for her book Women and Economics (1898), which argues that women’s liberty is dependent ...
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All Works in Curationist’s archives can be reproduced and used freely. How to attribute this Work:
Ellen Day Hale, 11 Feb 1855 - 10 Feb 1940, Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman, before 1880, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.