The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society - more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.

Gilman frames individual ethics in social terms: a person’s primary obligation is not private self-fulfillment but discovering how their abilities can function within—and improve—the larger social organism. The language of “functional relationship” reflects her characteristic, quasi-sociological way of thinking about human life as interdependent labor rather than isolated destiny. “Real job” is not merely paid employment; it implies a vocation aligned with one’s capacities and with social need. The quote also resonates with her feminist critique of confining women to economically unrecognized domestic roles, urging socially productive work and conscious participation in collective progress.