Kate Chopin was born on February 8th, 1850 in St. Louis Missouri. Her father, Thomas O’ Flaherty; imigrated from Ireland. Her mother was a member of the french community in St. Louis and her grandmother was also french. Chopin was the third youngest of the family but her sisters died in infancy. Then her brother died in his early twenties. Chopin’s father then died in 1855, thus leaving her with only her mother and her grandmother. Living with her grandmother and mother she learned to do everything a man could do in the house. She soon married Oscar Chopin and had 6 kids. But Oscar died in 1882. Once again Kate was left with women, raising 6 kids, and trying to recover a $12,000 debt her husband left her. She managed to work through it, but couple years later her mother died. Chopin was in a state of depression and her doctor said that writing can be a therapeutic healing process. So she did, she became a wonderful writer. She was published in articles and was soon writing novels like The Awakening. Her writing has a certain style, it involves women and either their husbands coming home.

Growing up Chopin was surrounded by women. She saw how strong women truly are and how they can do everything a man can do. She even experienced it herself when she was left with all these chores and responsibilities after her husband died. When she and her husband moved to Louisiana she saw how the women were treated there. They were treated like they couldn’t do anything except take care of the house and the kids. And they all had to have a husband to take care of them and be happy. That is where Chopin’s story revolve around. She tried to show the world how strong women can be. In her story The Story of an Hour it is about a woman; Mrs. Mallard, who hears that her husband has been in a train accident and has died. Instead of Mrs. Mallard becoming depressed about her husbands death, she feels a small joy. She is finally free from having her husband tell her what to do. Mrs. Mallard can live her own life and do what she wants to do. Chopin showed that Mrs. Mallard’s husbands death was an opening to a new life. But, at the end of the story you find out that Mrs. Mallards husband is alive, and instead of her feeling happy she dies of heart failure. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” Mrs. Mallard was happy that her husband died and when she saw that he was alive, she gave up her life because she didn’t want to be told what she has to do. Which is all women wanted during the women movement. They wanted to do what they wanted to do. Not sit around the house and clean. They didn’t want their husbands to stand over them and watch. They wanted to be their own person.
Kate Chopin did a fantastic job showing this throughout her writing. She never said that this story is about a woman who gains her independance. No, Chopin made the readers think and sometimes relate to life. She knew how to catch a reader's attention and think about the problem’s women are faced with. She took what her surroundings where, and put it into a story which helped the women’s movement. Her stories gave her an opening to what real life was like in the 19th century. She saw that some women didn’t have a voice or a life; and since she grew up with women doing everything, she thought that women having nothing wasn’t right. She wanted to show what women were capable of. Her stories where published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. People became fans and some saw the real struggle for women. In Desiree’s Baby Desiree is accused by her husband of being of black descent. She pleaded with him that she wasn’t and that he wrongfully accused her. But he was too stubborn to believe her. So without anyone to love her she killed her and her child. Women’s movement showed that if something goes wrong women are always to blame (even if they didn’t do anything). Chopin wanted to show the world what that can lead to and how women aren’t always the one’s to be blamed.
The Women’s movement is still going on today throughout the world. Some women in countries have little to no rights at all and men can just walk all over them. Kate Chopin’s writing can give women the courage to go out and get the right’s that they want. Kate Chopin wasn’t a feminist or a suffragette, she was a woman who took other women and their lives very seriously. Chopin was trying to show that a woman’s world isn’t always perfect and their right are not the same as men. Chopin’s work has been used to help women fight for the same life as men to make their own decisions without people criticizing it. In Madame Celestin’s Divorce Madame Celestin had decided to divorce her husband who beats her and also hasn’t been home for a long time. Her family and friends think that is a terrible decision and should just continue how everything. Madame Celestin’s talks to the town lawyer and is unsure of the divorce because of what people are saying, she can’t make up her mind. Eventually her husband comes home, “An' he 's promise me on his word an' honor he 's going to turn ova a new leaf." Her husband says that he will change, so Madame Celestin doesn’t go through with the divorce. Because of all the people telling Madame Celestin to not divorce her husband and how it was wrong; Madame did what was best for other people. She didn’t have a say in her life. That is still a struggle the women of the world face today. No say in her life. Chopin was sending a message that all women do have a say and that for people to hear it, women have to fight back and demand their rights.
Kate Chopin is an amazing women’s movement writer and she is not the only that writes about women’s movement. There are many others and they all have one thing in common. Women have rights and their own life. Chopin does a fantastic job showing that in all of her stories. She shows that women have their own life and they should live it without someone holding them back. Women also have a say in their life and how they want to live it. Chopin also states that women are too easily blamed and it is never always their fault. Some day in the future, because of Kate Chopin and many other authors. All women in the world will have the same life and rights as men.