Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was first published in 1892 and is a chilling short story that explores the mental deterioration of a woman who was subjected to the “rest cure.” The story became a foundational text in feminist literature, highlighting how patriarchal medical practices ignored women’s voices and autonomy within the medical field. More than a century later, the concerns that Gilman raised provide a lens through which we can view how women’s healthcare is handled by modern medicine. Gilman based this narrative — which follows an unnamed narrator who is isolated in a room alongside decaying yellow wallpaper and slowly descends into madness — on her own struggles with postpartum depression and the harmful treatments that were commonplace in the late 19th century. At the time, women’s mental health was often misunderstood, and conditions like depression or anxiety were commonly dismissed as hysteria. Read the rest of the article and view all of our Women...