born July 3, 1860, Hartford, Conn., U.S.
died Aug. 17, 1935, Pasadena, Calif.
U.S. feminist theorist, writer, and lecturer.
She gained worldwide fame as a lecturer on women, ethics, labour, and society. In her best-known work, Women and Economics (1898), she proposed that women's sexual and maternal roles had been overemphasized to the detriment of their social and economic potential and that only economic independence could bring true freedom. Her other works include the celebrated short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1899).