That one sex should have monopolized all human activities, called them "man's work," and managed them as such, is what is meant by the phrase "Androcentric Culture".
The Man-Made World was first written and published by author and sociologist Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1911. In this book, Perkins Gilman wrote of our 'androcentric culture', that is, a society that is built entirely around men. At the time of its first publication, this book wasn't paid much mind by the early feminist movement of the time, which hinged primarily around the vote for women. Perkins Gilman had a slightly more radical approach, and believed women should seek equality with men beyond just the vote. The Man-Made World was picked up again by the feminists of the seventies and eighties, and now, over a hundred years after its first publication, Spain's Center for Sociological Research has edited and published a new edition (Un mundo hecho por los hombres o nuestra cultura androcéntrica), edited by sociologist Constanza Tobío Soler. Professor Tobío visits us at the English Language Broadcast to talk about what was so revolutionary about Perkins Gilman's text then, and why it's still worth reading now.
