Essay Database

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel, Herland, written in 1915, is a utopian, feminist, fantasy. It first appeared as a serial in Gilman's magazine, The Forerunner, and did not appear as a book until 1979. Gilman was a forerunner herself. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is considered by many to be one of the most important female social economists, feminists, and sociologists of her time. Yet, her name is almost unknown or rather, excluded from many historical and sociological accounts. This …

…consider making my utopia open to men as well as women. Although this contradicts the idea of a typical, feminist utopia, if the point of utopia is to reach your highest, fullest sense of humanity, then to exclude somebody on the basis of gender would contradict that purpose. The Herlanders viewed men and women as people, not as their sex roles. We, as feminists must do the same to reach that same level of consciousness.