Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Pragmatist Framework for Constructing a New Humanhood

Abstract

A prolific writer and social activist, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) has been widely recognized as an influential American reformer and feminist thinker in the early decades of the twentieth century. However, scholars interpret her views in divergent ways. This paper focuses on Gilman's philosophy, as can be gathered from her non-fiction publications and reform proposals. It examines Gilman's work in the context of her reaction to theories of biological and social evolution. It argues that Gilman should be considered a pragmatist social theorist for three main reasons: her postulation of a malleable human nature; her support of scientific and social experimentation as the best tool to reach knowledge about the world and to transform it; and her defense of social democracy as a political, social, economic, and ethical system. To claim Gilman as a pragmatist this paper first presents the main tenets of classical pragmatism in relation to ontology, epistemology, and ethics, based on the ideas of three of its main figures: William James, Jane Addams, and John Dewey. Like them, instead of accepting determinism, Gilman constructed a philosophy of action that gave primacy to human agency. For Gilman, a world that was not ready-made meant that humans could – and should – work to overcome the subjugation of women in the domestic space and their discrimination in the public realm.