Charlotte Gilman Bio/Intro

In the biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, I felt a similarity between her life and mine. I too grew up without a father and therefore watched my mother struggle to raise me. I admire her strength to continue to strive for the things that she wanted in life. I look up to her for being strong enough not to follow suite and be a house wife. Had it not have been for the women that wanted to make things for themselves and make a name for women in the workforce  in corporate America, all women would probably still be living in the old days and just bearing the kids and cleaning the house. Men would probably still run everything and women would not be considered equal or somewhat equal anyway. I think that it was a little crazy that when she became mentally depressed from her unhappy marriage that the neurologist recommended that that she be in the “rest-cure” for her nervous disorders. His “rest-cure” required that she isolate herself from the modes of self-expression and intellectual growth that had sustained her sense of independence?!? It is completely absurd that doctors would actually tell someone not to express themselves. Or to stay away from the things that she loves to do. This is a prime example of how people viewed women back then and how they felt women should carry themselves and their limitations. I am so glad that things are no longer like that and women are free to do whatever they would like. Although most women still do the house work and take care of the kids, a lot of women juggle a job in there too, like me.