Wilkins Freeman are great historic writers, producing work from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. During this period, there were many changes in American society (including the roles of women in the home, post-civil war dynamics and the upswing of a new industrialization era), and these factors had great influence on where (and how) Wharton and Freeman found inspiration. .
This era revealed a dramatic shift, steering away from the concept of men being the primary bread winners and the only adult in the household who had the ability to "bring home the bacon"." Prior this changing America, men had worked to support their families with the expectation to arrive home to a home-cooked meal, clean house and well-behaved children. .
Edith Wharton and Mary Wilkins Freeman wrote about the hardships they faced, and the personal struggles that came with being a woman. Both authors wrote fictional accounts of their experiences and the issues facing women that they deemed relevant and important for their readers to consider . And, although Wharton and Freeman believed many of the same things regarding the roles of women in the home and society, they came from very different backgrounds.
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman grew up in a home beset by illness. Her parents were Congregationalists, a fundamental religion that subjected the family to a strict code of behavior (652). When Freeman's father lost his business, he was forced to move them to live in the of Reverend Thomas Pickman Tyler, where her mother became his housekeeper. Living in an impoverished family was difficult for Freeman to bear, due, in great part, to the teaching of her puritan heritage which led her to believe that a life of poverty was a punishment for sin (653). Freeman's mother died in 1880, and three years later her father walked away, leaving her with less than a thousand dollars. .
Unlike Freeman, Edith Wharton was raised in a life of extravagance.