Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)

Julien Murphy

pp. 51-68

in: Contemporary women philosophers, 1900-today, Berlin, Springer, 1995

Abstract

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American social philosopher at the turn of the century, a socialist and a feminist, a visionary. She was known both for her far-reaching philosophy of humanity and her radical reforms. The eminent sociologist, Lester Ward, said she was "the only person, who, to my knowledge, has clearly brought out this cosmological perspective, not merely in things human, but in the vast reaches of organic evolution."¹ Commonly seen as an optimist reformer, she saw herself as a philosopher.