Women's Issues in the 1800s

In comparing the three authors and the literary works of women authors, Kate Chopin (1850 -1904), "The Awakening", Charlotte Perkins Gilman's (1860-1935), "The Yellow Wallpaper", and Edith Wharton's (1862-1937) "Souls Belated", many common social issues related to women are brought to light, and though subtly pointed out are an outcry against the conventions of the time. In these three stories, which were written between 1899 and 1913, the era was a time in which it seems, women had finally awaken to realize their social oppression and were becoming rebellious in their pursuit of freedom from the male-dominated societal convention in which they existed. They commenced viewing their social stature as unjustly inferior, and they realized that these conventions placed deterrents on their intellectual and personal growth, and on their freedom to function as an independent person. …