GILMAN,CHARLOTTE,PERKINS - REASSESSING HER SIGNIFICANCE FOR FEMINISM AND SOCIAL ECONOMICS

Gilman was a committed feminist and social economist who intended to c hange society by insisting on an ethical, rational, indeed, ''natural' ' order that acknowledges and encourages mothering as its basis, regar dless of sex. For this reason, a consistent interpretation of Women an d Economics must incorporate an analysis of the relationship between t he position of women and the larger community. Specifically, Gilman be lieved that society had the potential to evolve institutionally into a healthier, freer, more socially interdependent state. She articulates this theme through a comparison of the ''social body'' to an organism . Newly liberated women would have a crucial role to play in this soci ety by responsibly fulfilling their capacity to be mothers who were ed ucated, productive, and happy. Women and Economics is a book about res tructuring societal institutions-beginning with, but certainly not res tricted to, the economy of the home. For Gilman, personal fulfillment and individual economic freedom could be obtained only under the condi tion of a more closely knit social structure, whereby private or domes tic labors are reorganized as social labors and primarily undertaken a s a service to society.