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This short story—an important piece in early American feminist literature—sheds light on 19th century attitudes toward women with physical and mental illness. In this excerpt, the speaker details her bedroom, a place where her husband and doctors come to encourage her to health. Her ailment is vague; the emphasis is on what others—all men—think and say.

The feminist organization Redstockings was founded in New York in 1969 on the premise that women were oppressed by male supremacy. Their manifesto calls for female class consciousness and a fight for liberation.