ABSTRACT
The cycle of consumption, production, and reproduction is rarely analyzed in its entirety. Consumption and reproduction fall outside the scope of conventional economic analysis. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in contrast, gives consumption and reproduction the same careful attention ordinarily reserved for the production process alone. Gilman’s theory, on the other hand, is premised on the belief that the organization of reproduction, like the organization of production, is a product of human artifice. An adequate understanding of Gilman requires seeing her in the context of the American socialist tradition, a tradition that is not indebted to Karl Marx. Marx gave little attention to overconsumption outside of the capitalist class. When he distinguished between the process of consumption and the process of production, his chief concern was that, under capitalism, workers’ productivity was increasing while their level of consumption was decreasing.
