Gender Roles In Herland

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a radical feminist and author who worked to break down gender barriers. Her advocacy for human rights and women’s equality was publicized through her writing of poetry, short stories, novels, and feminist non-fiction. In her serialized novel Herland, Gilman attempts to paint a portrait of a female society and its accomplishments. The women of Herland continually defy the expected norms of female behavior in both the turn of the century and in present day America. In, Herland, instead of overtly and negatively criticizing society, Gilman used sarcasm and humor to enlighten society to the frustrations and prejudices surrounding gender inequality. Herland sets the stage
for exploring new societal concepts; concepts pertaining gender and a woman’s “place” in the world, which are all possible in the female utopia. In this way, Gilman brings together the idealism of utopian communities with the pragmatic concerns of the human world. Herland centers around three male explorers who hear about a mysterious all-female society, so they decide to look for it, and when they find it, they are certain they will be received like kings. These three characters, Terry, Jeff, and Van (the narrator), each embody a slightly different aspect of traditional Western masculinity. Terry is brash and boastful, and takes for granted that women will always defer to him. He is also the member of the trio who is the most openly contemptuous towards women. If Terry represents the brutish aspect of Western masculinity, Jeff embodies its gentler strain. Van describes him as “full of chivalry and sentiment,” and as someone who “idealized women in the best southern style” (Gilman 8). For Jeff, women are sweet, gentle creatures whose virtue primarily lies in passivity. He can easily imagine a whole nation of women living peacefully and happily together, but he does not imagine them doing anything. Van, the “enlightened one,” deviates away from Jeff’s old-fashioned chivalry and Terry’s pompous posturing, but he still is not able to consider women his equals because of the physiological limitations of the sex. None of these men were prepared for what they encountered in the women of Herland. The women’s lack of femininity is what captures the attention of Terry, Jeff, and Van. Gilman uses the perspectives of her male characters to illuminate the glaring inconsistencies of traditional gender roles, which she insists are entirely constructed rather than biologically natural. One of the most disappointing things about Herland for Terry, Jeff, and Van was that the women they encountered were not feminine. Gilman writes, “They were girls, of course, no boys could ever have shown that sparkling beauty, and yet none of us was certain at first. We saw short hair, hatless, loose, and shining; a suit of some light firm stuff, the closet of tunics and kneebreeches, met by trim gaiters… If their hair was only long, Jeff would complain, they would look so much more feminine” (Gilman 13). This quote shows that Gilman’s self-conscious creation of a world where femininity does not exist involves a systemic deconstruction of what her male characters expect and demand in women. As the men’s prejudices slowly break down in the face of such humanness, Gilman takes advantage of this opportunity to theorize on the unreality of feminine/masculine distinctions. Gilman writes “These woman, whose essential distinction of motherhood was the dominant note of their whole culture, were strikingly deficient in what we call femininity. This led me very promptly to the conviction that those feminine charms we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected masculinity—developed to please us because they had to please us and in no way essential to the real fulfillment of great process” (Gilman 59). Gilman centralized motherhood for the reasons of feminist social principles. The idealized version of motherhood receives support of a whole society’s resources: it is central to a society’s structure. To the extent that Gilman radically altered conditions for the practice of motherhood, Herland remains a utopian goal. To analyze Gilman’s Herland, there is a clear message ad call for change in society and roles men and women are placed in.
The presentation of both genders are not egalitarian. The goal of Gilman’s novel was not to show her own gender biases, but instead to show the disparity between men and women. Most of what Gilman is asking for is that men have an understanding of a woman’s point of view. She wants people to see that women are just as capable when given the chance; this chance has been oppressed for so many years that people forgot. Women are placed into unrealistic roles that leave them unsatisfied and frustrated with life. As these arguments for male superiority were presented, the fact that they aligned so closely with cultural beliefs meant that they held within themselves the potential for revision and redefinition. Since male supremacy is culturally constructed, there is opportunity for change to happen. One society becomes educated, there is opportunity to build a de-gendered
society.
Being an early critic of gender inequality and pioneer to feminism, Gilman, through Herland, argued two central components to the unequal power distribution between men and women: economic relations and sex-relations.
She believed men were the sole bearers to economic responsibility, which distributed an unequal balance of dependency and power on the men by women. Women’s work, on the other hand, did not generate any income, and therefore devalued the weight of her contribution, usefulness, or skills needed for childrearing and housework. Furthermore, causing women to rely on men’s provisions. Gilman describes a woman’s false consciousness as tacitly obeying the rules and expectations of both genders, created by men. It is particularly the point about autonomy that displeases Gilman. It is not only the point of relying on the husband, but also it is losing a woman’s ability to think and be in
control.
Gilman’s second point focuses on gender construction and its effect on relationships. While Gilman does not completely rule out differences in men and women’s biology, she contests that men and women overtly play to gender expectations which further challenges women’s autonomy. It is not about uprooting motherhood or the housewife, but it is about uprooting the over-sexed women. Gilman’s ultimate goal was to develop autonomous individuals; rational behavior would be possible only if self-governing men and women could connect knowledge with action and could judge others’ opinions in relation to their own. Far too often, secondary concerns such as a woman’s appearance and attractiveness are brought into question, although, the main concern should be her competency and capabilities.
Gilman’s utopian vision is courageously and wittily recounted and deals frankly with the shortcomings of Western society. By current standards of feminism, it is clear that Gilman was simultaneously the product of her time-period while transcending it in many ways. Her observations about the status of women inspired her to create a utopian vision in which women were not props or accoutrements, but rather active participants in the formation of societies. By examining the influence of motherhood, power structures, etc. on women’s perceptions of themselves and the societies in which they live, Gilman has created a feminist framework in Herland that has and will continue to inspire the refinement of cultural expectations.