First published in 1911, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Man-Made World" is a book-length essay about what she calls “our androcentric culture.” By this she means a culture built mostly for the convenience of one gender and which disregards the other; a culture in which the male is seen as the default and the female as a deviation from the norm.
Gilman analyses with wit and insight the many negative effects of male domination, not only on women in particular but on the welfare of the human race as a whole. Society's long history of male hegemony and female subservience has not enhanced the natural qualities of the human race but rather distorted them, says Gilman, as can be seen in many of society's institutions. The author carefully analyses the consequences of this patriarchal culture on several areas, including the family, health and beauty, art and literature, education, ethics, religion, law and government, politics, economics, and so on.
