Psychology Today | 02.05.2026 00:11
In Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a community long isolated, home only to women who reproduce without men. There are no wars, no conflict, and little inequality. Her 20th-century story of a feminist utopia is a critical commentary on the nature of patriarchy and a science-fiction thought experiment on women’s leadership and social behavior. Although the concept of an asexually reproducing community of women is (still currently) in the domain of science fiction, it’s reasonable to hypothesize that a society ruled by women, a matriarchal one, could or could have existed. If so, such a society would likely be qualitatively distinct from the patriarchal societies we are accustomed to today and from those found in the ethnographic record.
