In Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates a world full of women who work together for the common good. The Herlandian women are constantly looking to the future, trying to find ways of improving it for the next generation. Rather than losing their individuality in the pursuit of this common goal, however, Herlandian women actually find individual happiness and fulfillment in the idea that they are creating a safe, progressive, and happy community for their daughters and granddaughters. This is something that Van, Jeff, and Terry (20th-century American explorers) have a difficult time wrapping their heads around because they come from a culture in which individual ambition is considered more important than collective progress. In describing Herland, Gilman provides a compelling illustration of the potential a community has for universal happiness and peace when citizens work together for the common good instead of focusing on individual gain.
In Herland, poverty has been eliminated and every individual citizen enjoys a high standard of living as a result of their dedication to making life better for everyone. When Van, Terry, and Jeff explain that some women in America work because they are poor, their tutors ask them, “What is poor, exactly?” This question implies that poverty is not something that Herlandians are faced with, meaning all the women there live comfortably and with far greater security than those in America. In describing the appearance of Herlandian towns, Van writes that “Everything was beauty, order, perfect cleanness, and the pleasantest sense of home over it all.” The beauty, order, and “sense of home” reflects Herlandians’ collective belief that the entire country is their home and should therefore be treated and maintained as such. In Herland, the three men find “a land in a perfect state of cultivation” in which every plant bears edible food. The evident work that had to go into cultivating the land so well is further evidence of the community’s dedication to ensuring all its citizens’ needs are being met.
In Herland, children are seen as “the most precious part of the nation” (emphasis added), which is why children’s education is considered a community-wide effort and is geared toward “mak[ing] the best kind of people” to ensure continued happiness for the community as a whole. Van writes that “[Children] were People, too, from the first.” This means that children are not treated as inferior beings to be talked down to, but as people deserving of respect; by doing this, the Herlandians prepare their children to treat other children (and, later, adults) the same way. In preparing children for the future, the Herlandians also believe that “real growth lay […] through education.” However, this doesn’t just mean education in hard facts—personal growth is also encouraged through social education in which the whole community plays a part. By the time Herlandian children reach adulthood, “what one kn[ows], all kn[ow], to a very considerable extent.” This means that equal education in childhood results in greater equality in adulthood, which helps promote a sense of unity and oneness that is then passed on to the next generation.
Throughout their 2,000-year history, the Herlandians’ primary focus was on creating conditions conducive to long-term sustainability. As Jeff, Van, and Terry discover, the most important reason for Herland’s success lies in the sense of community that exists throughout the land. Van writes of the children of Herland, “They were sisters, and as they grew, they grew together—not by competition, but by united action.” By discouraging competition in favor of “united action,” Herlandians eliminate societal divisions that occur as a result of conflicting individual interests. When the three men arrive in Herland, they find that the country’s “most conspicuous feature” is the “evident unanimity of these women.” This highlights the universal agreement on important decisions that exists in Herland as a result of their sense of unity. Moadine explains the motivation to work for the benefit of future generations rather than immediate personal benefit by saying, “You see, we are Mothers.” The Herlandians, then, have a deep, selfless, abiding love for the next generation because of their own motherhood—in making a better future for their individual children, they also seek to make a better future for all children.
There is no doubt that Herland is a successful community: poverty has been eliminated, universal education ensures equality from one generation to the next, and there is a true sense of unity and kinship between individual citizens. All of this, as the American men learn, is due to the fact that every individual Herlandian values the future of the entire community over individual gain, thus highlighting the importance of fostering a sense of community in ensuring the long-term success of a country.
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Community Quotes in Herland
“They are a protection,” Terry insisted. “They bark if burglars try to get in.”
Then she made notes of “burglars” and went on: “because of the love which people bear to this animal.”
Zava interrupted here. “Is it the men or the women who love this animal so much?”
“Both!” insisted Terry.
“Equally?” she inquired.
And Jeff said, “Nonsense, Terry—you know men like dogs better than women do—as a whole.”
“Because they love it so much—especially men. This animal is kept shut up, or chained.”
Here you have human beings, unquestionably, but what we were slow in understanding was how these ultra-women, inheriting only from women, had eliminated not only certain masculine characteristics, which of course we did not look for, but so much of what we had always thought essentially feminine.
The tradition of men as guardians and protectors had quite died out. These stalwart virgins had no men to fear and therefore no need of protection.
As I learned more and more to appreciate what these women had accomplished, the less proud I was of what we, with all our manhood, had done.
You see, they had had no wars. They had had no kings, and no priests, and no aristocracies. They were sisters, and as they grew, they grew together—not by competition, but by united action.
To them the country was a unit—it was Theirs. They themselves were a unit, a conscious group; they thought in terms of the community. As such, their time-sense was not limited to the hopes and ambitions of an individual life. Therefore, they habitually considered and carried out plans for improvement which might cover centuries.
We had expected them to be given over to what we called “feminine vanity”—“frills and furbelows,” and we found they had evolved a costume more perfect than the Chinese dress, richly beautiful when so desired, always useful, of unfailing dignity and good taste.
We had expected a dull submissive monotony, and found a daring social inventiveness far beyond our own, and a mechanical and scientific development fully equal to ours.
We had expected pettiness, and found a social consciousness besides which our nations looked like quarrelling children—feeble-minded ones at that.
All the surrendering devotion our women have put into their private families, these women put into their country and race. All the loyalty and service men expect of their wives, they gave, not singly to men, but collectively to one another.
We have two life cycles: the man’s and the woman’s. To the man there is growth, struggle, conquest, the establishment of his family, and as much further success in gain or ambition as he can achieve.
To the woman, growth, the securing of a husband, the subordinate activities of family life, and afterward such “social” or charitable interests as her position allows.
This seemed to us a wholly incredible thing: first, that any nation should have the foresight, the strength, and the persistence to plan and fulfill such a task; and second, that women should have had so much initiative. We have assumed, as a matter of course, that women had none; that only the man, with his natural energy and impatience of restriction, would ever invent anything.
Here we found that the pressure of life upon the environment develops in the human mind its inventive reactions, regardless of sex; and further, that a fully awakened motherhood plans and works without limit, for the good of the child.
In missing men we three visitors had naturally missed the larger part of life, and had unconsciously assumed that they must miss it too. It took me a long time to realize—Terry never did realize—how little it meant to them. When we say men, man, manly, manhood, and all the other masculine derivatives, we have in the background of our minds a huge vague crowded picture of the world and all its activities. To grow up and “be a man,” to “act like a man”—the meaning and connotation is wide indeed. That vast background is full of […] men everywhere, doing everything—“the world.”
And when we saw Women, we think Female—the sex.
But to these women, in the unbroken sweep of this two-thousand-year-old feminine civilization, the word woman called up all that big background, so far as they had gone in social development; and the word man meant to them only male—the sex.
