THE FEMINIST SYSTEM OF HERLAND

Abstract

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915) is regarded as the first feminist utopian novel. The novel was intended to be a social
critique, and Gillman herself tried to create a frame for her own social vision where the society as a whole, women especially, would prosper. Using a utopian novel as a genre, Gillman in Herland provides readers with faults of a masculine oriented and dominated society. The first feminist utopia depicts a society where women through education and rationalization create an ideal socialist society and economy. Advocating for women's rights, Gilman claimed that through equality and financial
independence of women the whole society could benefit. The aim of this paper is to discuss the influence of feminist philosophy on Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her novel Herland, especially the influence of Mary Wollstonecraft („founding mother of feminism“), who argued that women seem inferior to men due to their lack of education. This paper will also attempt to reveal the importance of education in the socialist system of Herland.