This document provides biographical information about literary critics Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and summarizes their landmark 1979 book "The Madwoman in the Attic". The book analyzes how 19th century patriarchal society imposed strict gender roles that oppressed women and influenced female authors. It explores how women writers struggled for artistic self-definition within this context, experiencing "anxiety of authorship" in having to establish their authority and rewrite social conventions. The document also reviews the historical women's rights movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries that aimed to challenge women's subordinate status in society.