Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who authored the feminist short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” turned Darwinism around to argue for reform. She thought that half the human race had been kept down at a lower stage of evolution by the other half. With equality, women would finally have the chance to prove themselves equal to men. She was ahead of her time in many ways, arguing against a stereotyped division of toys for boys and girls and foreseeing how a growing army of working women might change society in the future.
