Motherhood In Herland

In Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author creates a utopia that is ran solely by women. In this utopia we explore life through a feminist lens. I will be referencing back to the book itself and other relevant sources. I will be exploring some of the history that ties back on without writer and what motivated her to write this short story.“Gilman suggested how society and education might be different if motherhood rather than manliness became the cultural ideal” (Simone). In Herland we experience the lives of the herlanders after years of living their lives following the pure essence of motherhood. Through motherhood herlanders are able to teach the kids not only basic teachings but they teach the kids their way of life. Social classes …show more content…
In this scene we are explained how teaching is not a thing that is done to be someone in our society. Teaching in Herland is how the children are raised. They learn who they are going to be and what they will do to better their society. “In fact, they did not use the word as we do. Their idea of education was the special training they took, when half grown up, under experts. Then the eager young minds fairly flung themselves on their chosen subjects, and acquire with an ease, a breadth, a grasp, at which I never ceased to wonder. But the babies and little children never felt the pressure of that ‘forcible feeding’ of the mind that we call ‘education’” (Gilman). To put education with a feminist perspective we have to understand the point of view that Gilman wrote this. “Education, for Gilman, was the most effective way to transform society, so the most effective way to feminize society was to feminize education” (Simone). She wrote Herland with the end game being to have her readers understand that motherhood is their education. Through the feminist lens motherhood is the one thing that has been consistent from the start of Herland to the point the men enter this utopia. Motherhood is not only the key to their education it is also the key to understanding their language. “It was not hard to speak, smooth and pleasant to the ear, and so easy to read and write I marveled at it. They had an absolute system.. bore all the marks of an old and rich civilization” (Gilman, 31). Van explained at the beginning of this story that herlanders had their own language. We as readers are intrigued to read more about their different language. Throughout the story we realize that by own language Van means that some words that they use have different meanings than what we know. They use a word to their advantage and to prove their point of views. Language and manliness is what some people believe that our