Chopin and Wilkins Freeman Stepping Beyond Society's Limits

After the Civil War, there was another boundary expanding—the one placed between the sexes. Such activists as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton confronted the limitations placed upon women by society. Among the many issues was a woman's right to vote, known as the Suffragette Movement.

The 1890s was a period of progress for women's rights, and the writings of many female authors reflected this social change. Two outstanding writers of the period were Kate Chopin and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, who brought gender issues as well as regionalism into their stories.

Kate Chopin (1851 - 1904)

This Southern belle married at nineteen and had six children. At the age of twenty eight, she was suddenly a wealthy widow, who became bored with her high class society. She began to write at thirty-six and her stories presented female characters of unconventional behavior.

Her popularity waned after her publication of The Awakening, a novel highly criticized because of its blunt approach to women's predicaments as seen through the main character, Edna. Virtually forgotten by the century's end, scholars and critics today hail her writing as a significant contribution to American literature.

Read "The Story of An Hour" http://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/

Mary Wilkins Freeman was a sickly child with protective parents, which made her a withdrawn adult with few friends. In 1873, her father's dry goods store failed, forcing her mother to work as a housekeeper for a local minister. Later, Mary lost both parents and a younger sister, but taught by her mother to be self-sufficient, she sold her first short stories.

Mary Wilkins Freeman (1852 - 1930)

She married Dr. Charles Freeman at the age of fifty, and eventually the couple separated. Her stories about small town life in New England contained female characters who display an independent spirit.

Read "The Revolt of Mother" https://americanliterature.com/author/mary-e-wilkins-freeman/short-story/the-revolt-of-mother