Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Marianne Weber, two feminist intellects, famous and advanced in their time, but you’ve probably never heard of them. Despite their advanced theoretical writings on gender and contributions to sociology, very few people have ever heard of these two women. These women present a very unique theoretical perspective that would be greatly beneficial to the continuously developing feminist movement of today.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman produced more than 2,000 pieces of literature extending over several genres, including, most notable to my point, sociology. She had a particular genius in the theories that she created that came almost solely from her own life experiences. Through a life of gender discrimination, she was able to recognize the social structures that controlled society and herself. Being that she was born in 1860, having this sort of understanding of the social construction of gender roles was quite advanced and she attributed it to her life desires as a woman in a time when a woman’s desires were irrelevant. Gilman placed a large focus of her work on the pain experienced by humans. She attributes a lot of this pain to the humans thinking in a wrong way. She said that people had “false concepts about reality,” which means that the pain that people experience is largely due to the societal distortion of what is expected out of people. Their interpretation of what is right is based on historical social constructs that are assumed to just be a fact of life when it does not have to be.
Marianne Weber is remembered mostly for being the wife of the famous sociologist, Max Weber. She really did so much more and deserves recognition for her theoretical work in sociology. Coming from the same era as Gilman, Weber was born in 1870, a time in which female intellects were few and far between. Marianne Weber was fortunate enough to be married to a more progressive husband that allowed her to develop an intellectual life, still second to her roles as a wife. It was from this standpoint as a woman in marriage that she developed much of her theory. She makes a clear argument for the so-called “societal harmony” that is created and run by men at the expense of women. Up until more recently, every aspect of life including but not limited to religion, the economy, law, and education have all been created and run by men with no consideration to the needs and impact that it has on women. In the traditional, patriarchal marriage that consisted of a submissive wife, dependent on her husband to provide, there can become a master to slave complex. Without permission to independently develop intellectually or spiritually and being in a position that requires the wife to gain money by request or appeasement of the husband, the wife is left completely vulnerable and at the mercy of her husband. Weber developed a large portion of her theory around this concept and the varying ways in which the woman was slave to the man.
The examples of theories developed by these two women that I provided are true and completely relevant to today. They understand the restrictions of society and gender in a way that is still not fully accepted even today. While our society has made great strides to work towards shrinking the gender gap, we are still far from gaining full acceptance of theories such as these that Weber and Gilman were able to recognize so clearly over 100 years ago. Weber and Gilman were brilliant and contributed greatly to sociology and yet their works were suppressed and now they are hardly recognized—a testament to the equal struggle for women to gain equality and recognition today. Gilman’s biggest revelation came when she realized that no one could ever make her do anything. She could be threatened, she could suffer, or die if necessary, but no one could coerce her to do or believe anything that she did not want to. This revelation influenced Gilman’s entire life and understanding of gender—it would be good for society to have a similar revelation.
Lengermann, Patricia Madoo, and Gillian Niebrugge. 1998. “Chapter 4: Charlotte Perkins Gilman(1860-1935)—Gender and Social Structure.” Pp. 105-148 in The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory 1830-1930. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.
Lengermann, Patricia Madoo, and Gillian Niebrugge. 1998. “Chapter 6: Marianne Weber (1870-1954)—A Woman-Centered Sociology.” Pp. 193-228 in The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory 1830-1930. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.