Women can do anything men can do. :Societal and historical connection

       I believe that in "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Gilman's intention is to demonstrate the treatment of women in the victorian age. I believe that Gilman wants people to see that men treat women like they are less and incapable of doing things men can do. The character John, tells the character Jane that she is to not write, which is how the men in the 19th century treated women. Women are supposedly weak in both the story and in the real world. Men are supposedly powerful and educated in the story and the real world. "Note that these traits are generally polar opposites, following the thought that men and women were complete opposites of each other" (ivcc.edu). In addition to being weak, women are also supposedly emotional and likely to receive hysteria. In "The Yellow Wallpaper"Jane is diagnosed with female hysteria. "In history and in present-day politics, there is a very well-worn image to interpret and explain the evident differences between human feminine experience and the masculine one. It is the image of the “public sphere and the private sphere." It is said that the history and politics of men develop in the public sphere, the most visible and important one, whilst that of women would be reduced to the relative invisibility of the private" (ub.edu). This idea is demonstrated in "The Yellow Wallpaper." Jane begs John to have her cousin Henry and Julia visit. He says she is not ready for visitors, then he never had them come, as well as never having intentions of them coming. Charlotte Gilman's did accomplish her goal of proving that men do treat women poorly when they shouldn't. 

Radek, Kimberly. Women in the Nineteenth Century.

http://www2.ivcc.edu/gen2002/women_in_the_nineteenth_century.htm

 María-Milagros Rivera Garretas. Private Nor Public Women: The Personal is Political. 

http://www.ub.edu/duoda/diferencia/html/en/secundario11.html