If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do? My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.
So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again.

What does the narrator’s description reveal about the social context of the story?
Women were able to make their own decisions about working.
Doctors were believed to be unquestionably all-knowing.
Husbands were reluctant to take doctors’ advice.
Wives were considered to be less fragile than husbands.