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  • Essay / Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkin

    During and before the 1800s, women had few to no rights. They didn't have the right to vote, most didn't have much education, they were expected to stay at home and take care of the children and the house. Additionally, they could not own property in their name, their fathers owned it until they got married, then their new husband got the property once they got married (gender and sexuality issues). In the late 1800s, women were tired of not getting the same rights as men and decided to fight for equality (Women's Rights). Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper, shows how women in the late 1800s felt trapped by their husbands, how men generally thought less of women, and how men made decisions within the hearth. Before the women's rights movement began in the late 1800s, women had few rights, making them feel trapped by men. One of the reasons why women sometimes felt trapped by men is that at the time, women could not own their own land and society viewed them as either belonging to their father or belonging to their husbands when they got married. Women wanted to be able to own their own land and be able to form their own identity through what they accomplished in life (issues of gender and sexuality). Since fathers or husbands "owned" the women of this era, women could sometimes feel trapped. For example, in the story The Yellow Wallpaper, when the narrator sees a woman stuck in the wallpaper and says that "the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, as if wanting to get out", this symbolizes that the woman is stuck by her husband and cannot go out. Towards the end of the story the narrator says "jumping out of the window...in the middle of a paper...wouldn't be trapped by men, how men thought less of women and how men took all the family decisions. and women had no say. The work cited "Introduction to the Women's Rights Movement." Gender and sexuality issues: essential primary sources. Ed. K. Lee Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, and Adrienne Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 65. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Internet. April 17, 2014. “Introduction to women's rights: a companion to contemporary issues.” » Women's rights. Ed. Shasta Gaughen. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Companion to Contemporary Issues. Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. April 17, 2014. “Women’s Rights.” Gale Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Donna Batten. 3rd ed. Flight. 13. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 434-435. Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. April 17. 2014.