Gilman and Social Conformity

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the birth of the women's movement by focusing on the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which is seen as one of the most volatile yet progressive times in the social progress of women.
The writer of this paper discusses the life and writings of author Charlotte Perkins Gilman who, despite her eventual success in breaking free of men's expectations of her, underwent a struggle to break free from social norms similar to that of many women of her time. This paper details the deplorable manner in which Gilman and other women were treated for post-partum depression, at the time known as hysteria or melancholia. The writer describes how womanhood of the period symbolized the Protestant order of religion, faith, sacrifice and hard work. Manhood, on the other hand, began an era of exploration, ruggedness and decadence.

From the Paper:

"Although Gilman did not finish her treatment with Mitchell, many affluent and middle-class women, including Jane Addams, did follow the doctor's advice. While it is more than likely that only small numbers of women met the fate of the protagonist of The Yellow Wallpaper, the effects the treatment and the hysteria were similar in their detrimental effects. For suffering women, the rest cure meant giving up individual interests and goals and resigning themselves to the traditional male construction of the proper female social role. While women on the rest cure experienced isolation and a push towards the standard of womanhood, Mitchell's male patients were encouraged to pursue "the west cure," which involved going west to a ranch to ride horses, fish, hunt, and search for individual identity."

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