ABSTRACT
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was convinced that home management and child rearing would have been taken with much greater seriousness had they not been regarded as the exclusive responsibility of women. According to her “most modest computation,” the conventional domestic system was costing three times what it should be costing. The heart of Gilman’s case against prevailing neighborhood design demonstrated its injustice to women. Thus Gilman characterized the injury inflicted by society on those who must supervise the “dainty domestic vampire” with its “insatiate demands.” Gilman believed that the prevailing organization of the home did serious damage to all its inhabitants and not just to women. The correct solution, according to Gilman, would start with democratic neighborhood designs with conveniently located, shared domestic services. Gilman argued that the “constant friction” and waste of nervous energy in marriage were due to the industrial conditions in which they were located.
