New Woman

In her book Women in Modern Drama, Gail Finney describes the New Woman:

"One of the primary factors motivating the typical New Woman is rebellion against the 'old woman,' described by one member of an 1890s women's club as 'bounded on the north by servants, on the south by children, on the east by ailments and on the west by clothes.' The conventional Victorian woman is accustomed to self-sacrifice; the New Woman pursues self-fulfillment and independence, often choosing to work for a living. She typically strives for equality in her relationships with men, seeking to eliminate the double standard that shaped the sexual mores of the time, and is in general much more frank about sexuality than the old woman. Dismayed by male attitudes or by the difficulty of combining marriage and a career, she often chooses to remain single; concomitantly, she comes to place increasing value on relationships with other women (This new literary emphasis on female solidarity paralleled the actual growth of women's clubs.) Furthermore, the New Woman tends to be well-educated and to read a great deal. Although not necessarily a woman suffragist, she is likely to be more interested in politics than the conventional woman. Finally, the New Woman is physically vigorous and energetic, preferring comfortable clothes to the restrictive garb usually worn by women of the era. She often has short hair, rides a bicycle, and smokes cigarettes--all considered quite daring for women at the turn of the century. Significantly, however, the ultimate fate of the fictional New Woman is frequently hysteria or some other nervous disorder, physical illness, or even death, often by suicide, her unhappy end reflecting the fact that society was simply not yet ready to accommodate her new ways" (195-96).