With Her in Ourland: Sequel To Herland - Race and Religion

Race and Religion

Modern critics have found unsavory elements in Gilman's works: preoccupations with eugenics and euthanasia, plus "racism and nativism," class biases and other prejudices. Some portions of With Her in Ourland, especially the tenth installment, bear upon this subject matter. In the novel's tenth chapter, Ellador confronts a sociologist from the American South, and examines and exposes the illogical racist assumptions of his positions. In the context of her own era, Gilman was to a significant degree anti-racist.

The same chapter in Ourland also considers the status of Jews, what was then called the "Jewish problem." Gilman advocates intermarriage and assimilation of the Jews into the modern societies in which they lived — another position that was more liberal then than it is now.