Biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform.
The book looks at Gilman's legacy for women at the end of the twentieth century. The contributors reassess her reformist ideas and the views on fin de siècle feminism. Gilman scholarship has moved on from the needed recovery of her work to more critical treatments that allow to acknowledge elements now regarded as unacceptable. As a result, the essayists here reappraise Gilman and her writings in ways that directly address to overlooked points, such as her racism, her disregard of issues of class, and her broadly essentialist view of women.