New woman

Term used to describe the progressive woman in the late 19th century. First coined in 1894 by Marie Louise de la Ramée under her Pseudonym Ouida, the New Woman was both a term feared and used for empowerment. The periodical press used the term in order to vilify the New Woman after the suffragist movement demanded equal rights to those of a man for unmarried women. Often illustrated in masculine attire and as an asexual biological type, the New Woman as a concept was rather contradictory as she was usually associated with moral decadence and sexual licence. In the wake of equal rights for men and women through political movements such as the suffragists and suffragettes, more and more people started to question traditional gender roles. Women began demanding more from life, such as college degrees and being able to earn their own money. By speaking up for herself and demanding more equality in education and labour, the New Woman was, in association with socialism, regarded as a threat to the status quo and the Victorian ideal of a wife, or The Angel in the House, since she was no longer satisfied with just being a submissive wife and loving mother.

The New Woman is a fictitious character, an example being the protagonist Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte's novel of the same name. By creating strong female characters in the New Woman novel, literature and fiction contributed to the feminist movement. [unclear: is the New Woman fictitious or real?]

Reference

Ledger, Sally. The New Woman. Fiction and Feminism at the Fin de Siècle. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.