The Yellow Wallpaper: A Gender Analysis

Mental illness is not commonly associated with gender issues and feminism; however, through this course we studied how throughout centuries gender and intersectionality played a crucial role in one’s treatment and diagnosis. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is one of the first texts we examined that correlated with the role of gender in medical treatment and diagnosis. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is an example of a husband controlling his wife’s treatment, and consequently, she is misdiagnosed and never receives proper treatment. Written in 1892, it successfully exemplifies how gender role’s dictated a woman’s treatment because during this time a wife was subordinate to her husband. Although Perkins continuously explained to her

“Sex and Gender Differences in Health” examines the importance gender and sex plays in healthcare because of the obvious biological and pathological differences in men and women. The reading summarizes the purpose of reexamining the medical field, “To discuss and address properly the differences in health and health care between men and women, it is necessary to distinguish between sex and gender and their respective effects on health” (Sex and Gender Differences in Health). For centuries, men have been leaders in the health field; subsequently, treatments have been focused on the male gender. If different approaches had been made in situations like that of Perkins, women may have received better treatment in the past for diseases men do not commonly suffer from, like postpartum depression. Strides are continuously being made to ensure equal healthcare and diagnosis for women; however, people who face intersectionality suffer immensely from a lack of available resources and misjudgments. Suffering from a disability, being a person of color, being a woman, and/or being a member of the LGBTQ community creates immense struggles when seeking everyday healthcare and

Notably, females with autism may be closer to typically developing males in their social abilities than typical girls or boys with autism” (Autism- It’s Different in Girls). Similarly, “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit” relates to minorities and autism because the girl, of mixed race, struggles to fit in because she was neither white nor Native American. In order for healthcare to improve, tests must consider the differences when diagnosing a male and female and how no person can fit into a pre-designed mold. The work summarizes this idea as, “To the Pueblo way of thinking, the act of comparing one living being with another was silly, because each being or thing is unique and therefore incomparably valuable because it is the only one of its kind" (Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit). Similarly, those of color struggle to access healthcare because it is most commonly considered to be a disease that only white males suffer