SAT Example (Short Reading Comprehension)

The struggle to balance a family life and a career is significant in many women's lives. This tension is a theme in The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892. In this short story, the narrator struggles to fulfill her role as mother and wife at the expense of her work, a sublimation that ultimately makes her depressed. Though women today certainly have more options and freedom than those of Gilman's time, they still often face the conflict between being caretakers and having careers― a conflict that Charlotte Perkins Gilman chronicled over 100 years ago.