Ariana Isakson

Annotated Outline

I. Introduction

II. Body Paragraph One

a. The time period

i. Early 1900s

1. At this point in time women had just started working outside of the

home. Only about 19% of women were in the work force while the

majority still stayed home to tend to the children (Leaf Group

LTD).

2. World War I was also a turning point for women. With the men off

to war the women had to step up to take care of the homes and

provide food so many acquired jobs in factories, but when the men

returned they sent the women back home. However, with that little

taste of opportunity women started wanting more for their lives

(Leaf Group LTD).

3. In 1950 about 1/3 of women were in the work force, and among

those women any of the age of 16 and over contributed to 33.9%.

However, now as much as 3/5 women are in the work force and

among those 59.8% are 16 years of age or older (Heathfield).

a. The more common jobs that were taken by women were

teachers, dressmakers, nurses, and domestic service

workers (Striking Women).

 i. Although these jobs were more commonly taken by

women, only certain women took them. Teachers

were most commonly women who had not been

married, and once they were married they would

leave to be full-time mothers and wives.

ii. Dress makers were often women who needed extra

income so they would tend to women of the higher

social class who didn’t have time to mend their own

dresses and clothes.

iii. Nurses were also women who had not yet been

married. And domestic service workers were in the

same status as dress workers. They needed extra

money so they would work and clean for high

income families (Striking Women).

III. Body Paragraph Two

a. Charlotte Gilman (1860-1935)

i. Charlotte Gilman was a feminist and worked towards equal rights for

women and even wrote a classic called the women and Economics.

ii. After her death feminists started to use her short story works as bases to

help with points and gained a lot of popularity at the time.

iii. Gilman spent a lot of her life not caring what the public thought of her.

She did not enjoy being in the spotlight but she ultimately did things that

made her happy. (Radcliffe Magazine)

1. She was married, then divorced (scandalous) she then proceeded to

set her ex-husband up with her best friend. The eventually got

married.

a. In the early 1900s divorce was almost unheard of. At this

point in time about 29,000 people a year got divorces,

while in more recent years that number has soared to

144,267.75 average yearly divorces from 2000-2012

(Rogers).

b. Also at the beginning of the 20th century women were

enforced into subordination of their husbands, but because

feminism and equal rights were becoming so large at the

beginning of the century women started gaining strength

and be treated as equals instead of property (How marriage

has changed over the centuries).

2. Later in life she even ended up having an affair with a woman by

the name of Adeline Knapp, but ultimately ended up married to a

man by the name of Houghton Gilman whom was also her first

cousin
 iv. Gilman was also diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her husband

died in 1935, and because the cancer was terminal she just decided to end

her own life (Radcliffe Magazine)

IV. Body Paragraph Three

a. The Work and significance

i. Although “Turned” was not her most famous work it still had a lot of

importance.

1. The short story begins with the accounts of the main character Mrs.

Marroner. Mrs. Marroner’s husband had been gone on a business

trip, and while he was away she found out that their Swedish house

keeper was pregnant, but she vowed to help take care of the baby

because the girl did not have any family in the United States and

she was probably scared.

2. Later that night she received a letter as did Gerta (the house

keeper). Mrs. Marroner opened the letter that was addressed to her

and was puzzled to find a letter unsigned by her husband and did

not make any sense. The letter enclosed in her envelope was

originally meant for Gerta, and Gerta’s letter was originally meant

for Mrs. Marroner (pg 825).

3. Mrs. Marroner’s Response

a. Initially she was angry and told Gerta to leave, but after a

while she realized it was not just her wrongdoing, but her

husband’s as well. It was also more so his because Gerta

 was an uneducated immigrant who wanted a job and a

place to live; therefore, instead of throwing Gerta out Mrs.

Marroner decided to leave with her and not utter a word to

her husband or anyone else of where they were going.

ii. Perkins projects her strong will and demeanor into Mrs. Marroner by

having her come together with Gerta and arising to a challenge instead of

succumbing to the social norms of being seen and not heard as most

women were at this time.

V. Conclusion

The widely credited author Charlotte Perkins had gained popularity through her stories. She

told stories where the women had taken stands against men and against wrongs that had been

done to them. Not only did her stories bring forth new ways of thinking for women, but they

also reflected her life and her choices that she made.
 Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Turned at FullReads.” FullReads, fullreads.com/literature/turned/

Heathfield, Susan M. “What's the Future for Women in the Workplace?” The Balance, 9 Sept.

2016, www.thebalance.com/women-and-work-1919356

“How Marriage Has Changed over the Centuries.” The Week, 1 June 2012,

theweek.com/articles/475141/how-marriage-changed-over-centuries.

Leaf Group LTD. “The Lives of Women in the Early 1900s.” Synonym, 2018,

classroom.synonym.com/the-lives-of-women-in-the-early-1900s-12083174.html.

“Radcliffe Magazine.” The Evolution of Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Radcliffe Institute for

Advanced Study at Harvard University, 2001, www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/radcliffe-

magazine/evolution-charlotte-perkins-gilman.

Rogers, Simon. “Divorce Rates Data, 1858 to Now: How Has It Changed?” The Guardian,

Guardian News and Media, 28 Jan. 2010,

www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jan/28/divorce-rates-marriage-ons.

“Striking Women.” 19th And Early 20th Century | Striking Women, 2018, www.striking-

women.org/module/women-and-work/19th-and-early-20th-century.