In the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, women had become fed up with the laws and rights that did women no justice. In this time period women weren’t allowed to do much at all. A women’s role was to basically learn to be a house wife which consisted of having babies at their husband’s command, cooking, cleaning, and doing exactly as their husband said. To make it even more interesting, women’s education wasn’t meant to give them any powers. The pressures of the time period caused the writer of the Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, to personify the women’s plight in this character who has postpartum depression and is driven crazy by her husband’s overbearing helpfulness.

 According to Rosemarie Zagarri, who received a Ph.D. from Yale university, believes that by the early 19th century women begin to receive more educational rights, but their rights would be far less than men’s rights. The education that women were given focused more on things such as housekeeping to make women better wives and mothers. It was said in Zagarri’s lecture “Even as women gained greater access to formal education, and more women became fully literate, the purpose of women's education remained somewhat ambiguous in scope and intent. Much of their education, it was said, was ornamental in nature, not intended to provide women with vocational skills or the ability to pursue higher intellectual achievements. Although by the early nineteenth century a small number of women had begun to find employment as elementary school teachers, women were still excluded from political rights and from most positions of power and authority to the extent that female education did have a larger purpose, it was to make women better wives and mothers. (Zagarri. Rosemarie) Social expectations for women in this same time period were simple; do exactly what was asked of them by their respected husbands. In other words, women had no rights neither did they have any political input. Many colleges and seminaries taught feminine arts such as setting the dinner table, the proper way to greet dignitaries and how to decorate. It wasn’t until the late 1800s after the publication of Mary Kelly’s article that women began to speak up about politics. Because of the use of “Civil Society” women were finally able to step out of the home then into the public arena. Due to women not having any rights at all, they got together and formed the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

 The women suffrage is exactly what it sounds like, it is pretty self-explanatory.  The women suffrage movement is defined as a movement to secure legal, economic, and social equality for women, also called the feminist movement. It has its roots in the nineteenth-century women's movement, which sought, among other things, to secure property rights and suffrage for women.

 In the Yellow Wallpaper, the main character was told by her husband who is also a doctor that, she doesn’t need to be around people because that wouldn’t do anything but make her situation worse. However, she feels it would make her situation better by being able to communicate with others. Also during time period, women weren’t allowed to have prestigious jobs like being a doctor or lawyer like males because of the education opportunities they had to pursue. With our main character’s husband being a male and a doctor, she has no say so and what her husband does, or what she feels is best for her. This is an example of a man feeling as if he is smarter than a woman, and he knows her body better than she does. Zagarri also tells us that, “After the Revolution, many observers repeated what Poulain de la Barre's dictum stated, "The Mind has No Sex" and proclaimed women's education to be a "natural right ( Zagarri, Rosemarie).  This quote is suggesting women can be just as smart as men.

  Because the use of “civil society” women were finally able to step out of the home and then into the public arena. In The Yellow Wallpaper, this woman is given no credit for having any intelligence, or for being able to think for herself. He also never asked her how she feels about her medication, or how she feels about some of the decisions he would make. This is mirrored in the way society didn’t think women could learn science, business, or medicine. In this time period women didn’t have many rights which is why the Women Suffrage movement developed. The social expectations for women in this time period were to do what they are told. While women were to stay at home all day, men were to go work and make a living for the household. As a woman in this wicked time period your main job was to provide children at command and to take good care of them. Because she was confined to the home the main character thinks , “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I say I had less opposition and more society and stimulus –but Johns say the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it makes me feel bad” (Stetson 647). She needs an outlet, or she needs to be involved with something bigger than herself, instead of sitting around being a puppet all day. If her husband John was to ask her how she felt, or if her husband was to take her feelings into consideration, one could see she needs an outlet or she needs to be involved with something bigger.

 The husband of the main character thinks she may have hysteria because she wasn’t taking care of her baby and she was always sad. In reality, the way he treated her was as if she couldn’t take care of herself, only made things worse. Hysteria is also defined as an uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people.  This is why John felt as if her being around people would only make her situation worse, but she feels as if he is using that as an excuse to take control over her. Because she is she is his wife, she tries her hardest to obey and respect her husband’s decisions and authority. She never questions or argues what he tells her to do. 

 In Clair Apodaca’s Measuring Women’s Economic and Social Rights Achievement she is analyzing how Women rights were and how they evolved. She used data to analyze women rights and the difference between economic and social rights between males and females. The study is a beginning step in the long process of understanding women’s situations in regard to the realization of economic and social human rights. This article also explains some of the inequality experienced by women. They used different kinds of measurements to assess women’s participation in economic and political life.  In the study scientist main focus was to figure out or understand if women were enjoying these rights on the same level as men. The rights the women are supposed to be enjoying were the rights of all individuals such as food, education, medical assistance, work, adequate shelter, and clothing.

 In conclusion, things have changed a whole lot since the 19th century when the Yellow Wallpaper took place. Today, women are still viewed as the weaker link in a relationship, but women are more respected on how they are feeling and are allowed to receive the same education opportunities as males. In fact, you may find some men today that play the women’s house wife role. Women are making great strides in the job industry and not just teachers. Women are now Doctors, lawyers, or whatever they like to be. 
