Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution was published by Small, Maynard & Company in 1898. The book made Gilman internationally famous — it was translated into seven languages within two years and established her as the leading feminist intellectual of the Progressive Era.
Gilman’s argument is evolutionary and economic: humans are the only species in which the female depends on the male for survival. This “sexuo-economic relationship” — women’s complete economic dependence on their husbands — distorts both sexes. Women develop exaggerated sexual characteristics (they must attract and hold a provider) while their productive and intellectual capacities atrophy. Men are burdened with supporting an unproductive dependent. Children are raised by women who have no training or aptitude for childcare and who are isolated in individual homes.
The solution Gilman proposes is structural: communal kitchens (so that cooking is done by professionals rather than amateurs), professional childcare (so that children are raised by trained specialists), and women’s full participation in the productive economy. Marriage would continue — but as a relationship between economic equals rather than a contract between provider and dependent.
The book’s radicalism is often underestimated because Gilman’s prose is calm and reasonable — she makes her case through logic and evolutionary argument rather than polemic. But her proposals (which anticipated by a century the debates about work-life balance, professional childcare, and dual-income households) would have dismantled the Victorian family structure entirely.
Collecting Women and Economics
First edition (Small, Maynard, Boston, 1898): Cloth boards.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $500–$1,500
- Very good: $200–$500