Gilman, Charlotte Perkins

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was a feminist writer and lecturer who is best remembered for her autobiographical and semiautobiographical writings, especially The Yellow Wallpaper. Born in Connecticut, she was related through her father's mother to the Beecher family, and after her father abandoned the family in poverty, the Beecher sisters were instrumental in young Charlotte's upbringing.

The sisters, Catharine Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) were all abolitionists and suffragists. Despite the lack of her father in her life, Gilman's autobiography recounts that she was a tomboy as a young woman, with few female friends and little relationship with her mother.