Over the course of history, many voices have spoken out against human inequality.  In her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman, made an especially big impact on feminism in the 1800s.  Gilman speaks out about the unfair treatment of women's physical and mental health.  The civil rights movement tends to overshadow the issue of women's rights, but this became a prevalent topic in the nineteenth century to present time.  Women in the late 1800s and early 1900s began using their work as writers, journalist and public speakers to defy what men thought women were incapable of.  Through Gilman's use of tone, will power and irony she took a stand on feminism for every woman in the early 19th century.  

 The purpose of Gilman's short story was to reach out to the female audience across America and have them put a stop to men's suppressing actions towards women.  Through her use of innocent tone she shows how women were unable to make necessary decisions for themselves.  Lauter expresses that Gilman made it obvious to her audience of the demeaning attitude of the doctor in charge of her care saying, "It seems that she has carefully crafted her sentences and metaphors to instill a picture of lurid and creepy male oppression" (Lauter).  In her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman creates a spin-off of what had happened to her in real life.  She had been battling depression and by the word of her husband she was admitted into a sanatorium under the care of a male doctor named Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell.  Gilman voices how belittling the Doctor makes her out to be through her tone. Through her own husband's tone, one can tell how she is being subjugated, such as when he said, "What is it little girl? And "Don't go walking around like that you'll get a cold"" (Gilman, 215).  This is something that would be heard from a mother trying to take care of her naive child.  His treatments included no physical or mental activity for Gilman, especially writing.  Her husband acted like her mental illness was made up, her husband states, "She will be as sick as she pleases!" (Gilman 215).  Implying once more that like a child, she is making up her symptoms and that this "illness" is in her head. Gilman kept quiet and innocent until she could take no more of the physical and mental abuse. She used everything is her power not to go insane under such solidarity.  After getting home from the sanatorium, Gilman made some changes to her life which included leaving her husband.  

Gender inequality in the time that Gilman was alive was a major issue. Therefore this was normal of doctors and men in general to do at this time in history.  Men thinking they knew what was best for women did not give them the dignity that they deserved.  Gilman is arguably forced in to being nothing more than a potato and this ultimately led to her mental breakdown.  She was simply given orders to not engage in any physical or mental activity what so ever. The old children's nursery that served as her room resembled that of a jail cell.  Gilman says, "The Wallpaper, as I said before, is torn off in spots" and "Then the floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been through the wars."  The ripped wallpaper, the mangy bed and solidarity were all contributors to her insanity.  She was being treated like a child forced into prison.  Gilman's misfortune was relatable to that of the mistreatment of a criminal in the United States.  She was treated as property, but she mustered up enough will to fight and she overcame her obstacles and beat the odds.    

After rejecting his inhumane form of treatment she divorced her husband and moved to California.  Gilman persevered and used her experiences to open the eyes of men and women across the country.  After being treated in such a child-like manner and as a lesser, Gilman proved her husband wrong and turned out to be a independent and intelligent women.  At the time she did not know it, but she was making a great stand for women and started a great uprising. Gilman cleared a pathway for women to a world outside of the home and outside of the clutches of oppressive men. Women were able to stand up for themselves and make their own footprints in society, "The determination of these women to expand their sphere of activities further outside the home helped legitimate the suffrage movement and provided new momentum for the NWSA and the AWSA"(History).  Women were thought of as weak and inferior in the minds of men during this time.  Gilman and many other women proved society wrong.  It is ironic that Gilman did exactly what the Doctor in "The Yellow Wallpaper" said that she could not do.

Through Charlotte's ability to write and speak publicly she influenced girls and women across the country to not fall slave to men.  Over time she began publishing pieces of work such as, Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Relations that was read around the world and made her a figure of hope to women in all places and all time periods.  Through her works and efforts Gilman was a pioneer for all people dealing with unequal human rights. 

