The Business of Marriage & Family

Charlotte Perkins Gilman discusses the lot in life of women in the 19th century based on their economic dependence upon men. She basically states that marriage is not like a business partnership. Yet she also states that men cannot produce wealth without the support of women. But then she goes on to argues that women do not "earn their keep" by the happiness, house service,  or motherhood they provide to their husbands. I think that Gilman's ideas are accurate for the women of 19th century, but views of gender roles and exactly what marriage is and should be have changed over time. Personally, I disagree with Gilbert - particularly that marriage is not like a business partnership. (She is also mistaken about her idea that the division of labor based on gender cannot be found in other animal species, but that is a lesser argument.) Gilbert limits her view of women's worth to economic exchange alone and I think this is not quite accurate.

I do think that marriages are comparable to businesslike partnerships. The couple acts like an mini organization with common goals and efforts to reach those goals. There is an exchange of goods and services based on the strengths and weaknesses of each partner,  and a network of support is created through the joining of larger family units. Even without such emphasis on purely economic exchange, there is an irrefutable social contact in place which delegates# delineates certain areas of management for each partner. A healthy, prosperous family unit is usually a main goal of a marriage and that requires management over the home and management over the economic direction of the family unit. When one partner is not holding up their end of the bargain for an obscene amount of time, divorce may be likely in which the businesslike partnership based on this kind of social contact then dissolves.

I can agree with Gilman's assertion that, "If we dare face or own thoughts,  and force them to their logical conclusion, we shall see that nothing could be more repugnant to human feeling,  or more socially and individually injurious, than to make motherhood a trade", but I also believe this is closer to the truth of the situation. Without shielding our eyes by our own sensibilities toward our animal nature, we avoid Gilman's limitation of accepting a less accurate picture.

I chose the following picture because it symbolizes the binding social agreement people enter when getting married.