Charlotte Perkins Gilman Quotes on Freedom
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a leading feminist theorist of her era, argued that the freedom of women depends on economic and intellectual independence, and the quotes gathered here present that case. Gilman rejected the notion of an innately limited female intelligence, declaring flatly that there is no female mind and that the brain is not an organ of sex. She held that what passes for women's nature is, for the most part, the product of training under economic dependency, and that until economic independence of women is achieved, no other equality can be lasting. She also championed free thought more broadly, predicting that knowledge would advance irresistibly until no alleged truth that cannot stand the full blaze of knowledge retained respect. Drawn from Women and Economics and her later writings, these passages present freedom for women as inseparable from economic independence and the unfettered use of the mind.
Quotes
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“There is no female mind; the brain is not an organ of sex.”
Ch. 8. -
Attributed to Charlotte Perkins Gilman:
“Until economic independence of women is achieved, no other equality can be lasting.”
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Attributed to Charlotte Perkins Gilman:
“What we call women's nature is for the most part women's training under economic dependency.”
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“The latest and highest form of Feminism has great promise for the world. It postulates womanhood free, strong, clean and conscious of its power and duty.”
Feminism" (1908), quoted in Susan Ware, Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote . Harvard University Press , 2019. -
“The stony-minded orthodox were right in fearing the first movement of new knowledge and free thought. It has gone on, and will go on, irresistibly, until some day we shall have no respect for an alleged "truth" which cannot stand the full blaze of knowledge, the full force of active thought.”
The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman , (1935). -
“A million million worlds that move in peace; A million mighty laws that never cease; And one small ant-heap, hidden by small weeds, Rich with eggs, slaves and store of millet-seeds. They sleep beneath the sod And trust in God.”
In this Our World : Poems(1898) | A Common Inference .