Women and Economics : A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women As a Factor in Social Evolution

Charlotte Perkins Gilman ; With A New Introduction By Michael Kimmel And Amy Aronson. Originally Published: Boston : Small, Maynard & Co., 1898. With New Introd. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This book is written to offer a simple and natural explanation of one of the most common and most perplexing problems of human life, --a problem which presents itself to almost every individual for practical solution, and which demands the most serious attention of the moralist, the physician, and the sociologist--To show how some of the worst evils under which we suffer, evils long supposed to be inherent and ineradicable in our natures, are but the result of certain arbitrary conditions of our own adoption, and how, by removing those conditions, we may remove the evils resultant--To point out how far we have already gone in the path of improvement, and how irresistibly the social forces of toƠday are compelling us further, even without our knowledge and against our violent opposition, --an advance which may be greatly quickened by our recognition and assistance--To reach in especial the thinking women of toƠday, and urge upon them a new sense, not only of their social responsibility as individuals, but of their measureless racial importance as makers of men .It is hoped also that the theory advanced will prove sufficiently suggestive to give rise to such further study and discussion as shall prove its error or establish its truth. -- Provided by publisher Women and Economics is Gilman's most original and famous work of nonfiction. In it she examines the origins of women's subordination and its function in society. Woman, she argues, makes a living by marriage - not by the work she does - and thus man becomes her economic environment. As a consequence, her "female" attributes dominate her "human" qualities because they determine her survival. Gilman's thesis challenges both biological and theological arguments about women's innate passivity and defies the virtual exclusion of women in classical sociological theory. If women are to fully engage in domestic and public life, Gilman contends that their emancipation requires both economic participation and adequate child care. Gilman's argument in this classic work resonates today, as women continue their struggle to find a meaningful independent identity and to balance work and family. Here reprinted with a new introduction, Women and Economics belongs on the same shelf as works by Betty Friedan, Simone de Beauvoir, and other pioneering feminists. SINCE we have learned to study the development of human life as we study the evolution of species throughout the animal kingdom, some peculiar phenomena which have puzzled the philosopher and moralist for so long, begin to show themselves in a new light. Frontmatter Introduction (page vii) Proem (page lxxi) Author's Preface (page lxxv) Women and Economics (page 1) Index (page 341)