Late 1800s Circumstances Affecting the Presence of Race, Gender, and Class
Why Didn't Bellamy Address Race and Gender?
While Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward may have displayed progressive views in terms of economics and social class, there is an evident lack of representation in regards to gender and race. Around the time the 1888 novel was written, the rights of women and African Americans became very controversial issues. Women, for instance, were beginning the exponential fight towards their right to vote, creating more equality between men and women. With race, segregation and an era demanding the end of African American rights was underway, with a very prominent split between the North and South. Bellamy could have chosen not to address these topics since they were controversial and he was already bound to draw some controversy with the pro socialism stance his novel took.As far as other sociological concepts, it is not hard to decipher what prompted Bellamy to take such a pro-socialist stance when it came to distribution of wealth in society; Bellamy lived a few decades after the start of the Industrial Revolution, which found most citizens moving into urban settings that provided factory work, yet this situation also began to increase the wealth gap between the rich and the poor. Bellamy likely took notice of the extreme differences within wealth and how this impacted the lives of those who barely able to survive.
Linked below, this extensive 2017 book review of literary works written from 1771-2010, published by Ibram X. Kendi of the New York Times, aids in the historical circumstances surrounding the novel's publishing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/books/review/a-history-of-race-and-racism-in-america-in-24-chapters.html