Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is one of the most important women contributors to classical sociology, primarily because of the originality and significance of her theoretical work. Although well known to her contemporaries in both the United States and Europe, Gilman’s legacy was not fully acknowledged by sociologists until her work was recently rediscovered under the impetus of second wave feminist scholarship. Gilman’s overarching accomplishment as a sociologist was to formulate a still unparalleled conception of gender. She was both the first theorist to separate gender, as socially constructed behavior, from biological sex and to treat it as a significant variable in social analysis, and the first to create a general theory of society in which gender stratification serves as the foundational principle. She also offered important ideas for the sociological subfields of economy, work, culture and family, presenting her arguments in a variety of forms: formal theory, verse, essays, public lectures, novels and short stories. The essays selected for this volume feature essays of interest to sociologists from across a spectrum of disciplines: economics, literature, women’s studies, philosophy and history as well as sociology. The essays are arranged thematically with sections on: gender and society; economy and society; methodology; the public role of the sociologist; towards a sociology of women; and race, class and gender.

Patricia Lengermann is Research Professor at The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Gillian Niebrugge-Brantley is Scholar in Residence at the American University, Washington, D. C. and Professor Emerita at Northern Virginia Community College, USA. The editors have published widely both together as a research team and individually, on sociological theory, especially the work of women writers, and on feminist theory.