Asia Under Girls 030

It was a reaction to the gender role, as characterized by the so-called Cult of Domesticity, ascribed to women in the Victorian era. Advocates of the New Woman ideal were found among novelists, playwrights, journalists, pamphleteers, political thinkers and suffragettes. Men and women who favoured the new cause gathered, for example, in the Fabian Society in the United Kingdom, a precursor of the Labour Party. The supporters' aim was to encourage women to liberate themselves from male domination, manage their lives and leave behind anything that might restrict their pursuit of happiness and self-realization. Heavily opposed by conservatives, the New Woman movement started to fade away in the course of the First World War when, due to a shortage of "manpower", many women took on jobs and when, shortly after the war, universal suffrage was achieved.

Certain characteristics were seen as pertinent to the new ideal. By general consent, a "New Woman" was supposed

• to have received an adequate education (primary, secondary and preferably also tertiary) and to be able to use her knowledge wisely;
• to earn money and thus be 'financially independent';
• to participate in political discussion and decision-making;
• to decide herself if, when and whom she wants to marry and how many children she wants to have;
• to show outward signs of being different by wearing more comfortable clothes, see rational dress;
• and, generally, to defy convention and social norms in order to create a better world for women.

Not all proponents of the New Woman went equally far in their demands. For example, while it was generally acknowledged that the Victorian moral code and in particular double standards of morality must be abandoned, the concept of free love was by no means universally advocated.

In fiction, H. G. Wells's Ann Veronica (1909) ("this poisonous book", according to The Spectator) is one of the classic New Woman novels, whereas Grant Allen's The Woman Who Did (1895) was a controversial contribution. In drama, Henry Arthur Jones's play The Case of Rebellious Susan (1894) deserves mentioning in this context. Kate Chopin's The Awakening also deserves mention.

Source from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki