It is difficult to believe that about a century ago, women in western societies did not have civil, political, and economic rights that are seen as basic today. At the beginning of the 20th century, women were dependent on either their fathers or their husbands and had little chance of doing anything else rather than take care of children and manage the household. The rights and opportunities women enjoy today were achieved thanks to feminists insightful and courageous enough to fight for changes in the social position of women. Today, as many rights feminists of the 20th century have been legally and socially established, the arguments they made still remain relevant to the social reality of today as despite being equal on paper, women are still economically disadvantaged.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, along with other feminists of the 20th century, maintained that in order to reach true gender equality, obtaining the right to vote is insufficient. To have a chance of establishing gender equality, women have to obtain economic rights and economic opportunities. Economic dependency on the fathers and husbands keeps women from professional and social advancement, and thus, stands in the way of women developing a political voice as strong as that of men. Charlotte Perkins Gilman argued that women tend to do more work than men. However, the work completed by women is commonly unrecognized and uncompensated. This mostly relates to the fact that women have traditionally been responsible for maintaining households and taking care of children, which are by no means easy tasks. On the contrary, they are quite challenging physically and psychological but are not recognized as important. Being tied to the household responsibilities, women have to chances for economic and professional advancement outside of home, and thus, have no chances of participating in technological, economic, and social progress. According to Charlotte Perkins Gilman, for women to reach true gender equality they have to obtain economic independence and strive for economic equality along with the fight for civil rights.
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Today, as the equal civil and economic rights for women have long been legalized, we are still far for enjoying real gender equality in our society and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s reasoning still remains relevant for explaining the reasons behind this unfortunate state of affairs. Namely, despite having equal political and economic rights, women still exercise less power in key domains of politics, business, science, religion, etc. As generally women demonstrate the same ability levels as men, the reason major gender inequalities still exist is that women are still expected to invest lots of their time and energy into doing unpaid, household and child-raising labor. This holds women back in their careers because they are pressured to take care of their household responsibilities, and thus, are forced to skip on opportunities for advancing their careers and developing themselves professionally.
On average, women still spend significantly more time doing household chores than men and over the years the consequent energy and time shortages that accumulate to a smaller amount of resources they can invest in their careers. One does not have to go far to see an example of this. For instance, in my family, despite working a full-time job, my mom was still responsible for cleaning and cooking. Hence, she had to rush home every night to cook dinner while my dad could enjoy networking with colleagues over beers after work. Further, whenever my mom was busy with cleaning the house, my dad could do some professionally related reading to develop his expertise and get ahead at work. This is not to mention that it was my mom who had to take days off whenever I was sick. Hence, there is no wonder that my dad was able to reach more in his career path. In order to ensure true gender equality, it is crucial that women are granted equal opportunities for professional and economic advancement.
