Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 – 1935), also known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson, her first married name, was a prominent American humanist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[2] Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis.

Less well known are Gilman's views on race. To solve the so-called 'Negro Problem' in the United States in the early twentieth century, Gilman suggested a system of forced labor she called "enlistment".