吉爾曼在《婦女與經濟》一書中指出：父權社會將女性勞動力侷限於私領域的家務勞動中，以致婦女經濟無法獨立，社會地位低落。唯有破除傳統故舊對兩性勞動力不當的二元劃分：男性—公領域，女性—私領域，不平等的兩性關係才能改善，人類社會才能提升、進步。

在《移山》、《她鄉》、《他鄉》烏托邦三部曲中，吉爾曼採用「對照與比較」(contrast and comparison)的創作技巧，勾勒出女性勞動力得以充分發展的理想社會藍圖。並透過性別不同、立場互異的主角對話，進一步闡述其在《婦女與經濟》中針對「性別經濟關係」(sexuo-economic relation) 所提出的看法與改革理念。

本論文以「性別區分」(sex distinction)、與「勞力區隔」(labor division)兩個面向，探討吉爾曼如何透過《移山》、《她鄉》、《他鄉》一連串烏托邦小說的創作，循序漸進地引導讀者，特別是女性，破除深植心中的父權迷思，認知女性在經濟體制中所具備的能力與可有的作為。

Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her political treatise Women and Economics (1898) points out that women’s inferior social status is caused by the inappropriate distribution of the female labor force to the domestic field. Since women are tied to household drudgery, they are unable to participate in the public workforce to gain their economic independence. Only when the deep-rooted binary division of human labor—men are attributed to public sphere and women, the private—is discarded, can the unequal relation between the sexes be improved, and the human society elevate and progress.

In her utopian trilogy—Moving the Mountain, Herland and With Her in Ourland, by the use of contrast and comparison, Gilman blueprints her utopias in which female labor force is effectively utilized. That is, by the conversation between the protagonists of different sexes and opposite viewpoints, Gilman restates her reformative ideas on sexuo-economic relation as addressed in Women and Economics.

This thesis, by analyzing Gilman’s utopian trilogy in the perspectives of “sex distinction” and “labor division,” attempts to explore how Gilman helps her audience, especially women, to free themselves from the patriarchal social conventions and then realize their potential and capability of accomplishing themselves in the economic world.

1.
Albinski, Nan Bowman. Women's Utopias in British and American Fiction. London: Routledge, 1988.