Women and Economics. A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution
Sociology
087934
New York
1966
13,5×20,5
meki
356
engleski
Price: 10,00 EUR
This is a foundational feminist text written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in 1898. The book argues that women’s economic dependence on men stunts their personal development, harms family dynamics, and restricts the progress of human civilization. It is widely celebrated as Gilman's single greatest sociological and philosophical work. Gilman points out that humans are the only species where the female depends entirely on the male for food and survival. This dependency turns marriage into an economic arrangement rather than a purely emotional partnership. She argues that traditional society forces women to use their sexual and maternal traits to secure financial survival. Consequently, women are over-developed sexually but under-developed as productive human citizens. The work women perform at home bears no relation to their actual compensation. Instead, a woman's social and financial status relies purely on the earning power of her husband. Gilman challenges the notion that being a mother requires a woman to stay confined to domestic chores. She suggests specialized professionals should handle housework and childcare, freeing mothers to excel in fields suited to their individual talents. Upon its publication the book became an immediate international phenomenon, establishing Gilman as a premier thinker of the first-wave women’s movement. While it fell out of print for a time, it was widely revived during the 1960s and 1970s feminist movements because her views directly mirrored modern debates on wage equity, professional childcare, and domestic gender roles.
