Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917

As the most recognized and celebrated feminist of her time, the prolific writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman initially battled the societal expectation that she should not pursue an intellectual life but should instead relegate herself to the sphere that society expected for her to occupy. The Victorian concept of spheres constituted the belief that men and women were destined to occupy two separate spheres, men outside the household in society and women in the home caring for the household and her children. Gilman did not think gender should be the deciding factor that governed expectations for men and women. Instead, Gilman believed that, as a member of the white race, she and other white women held her racial identity and potential for greater evolution and advancement in common with the men of their race. Gilman believed that a third sphere, the “human” sphere, comprised the common ground white men and women should be able to occupy collaboratively, working in tandem to reach the potential their race was destined to attain. Gilman attested that sex and gender differences should not be the determining factor in deciding who should enjoy certain rights under the law or social expectations; it was race that defined someone as worthy of dignity and autonomy.