Kill Dirt, Says Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Duke University Library Excuse this detour to another topic in the 19th century. I’m currently doing research into views of spinsterhood in the early twentieth century, background for a project on the dashing spinster Tish. One of the most outspoken on the topic was novelist and feminist theorist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. While trying to figure out more about her life, I discovered she studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduation, she initially made her living designing trade cards, a popular form of advertising. Her work is quite whimsical, different from other trade cards I have seen. I particularly liked this one, showing a young female archer attacking dirt. Was it perhaps the embryo of her future analysis of housework? She would go on to criticize the sexual division of labor in the home that put all the hard jobs in the hands of women. Although the bold sportswoman above is still in charge of cleaning, she is making quick work of it. Don’t you wish it were so…