Visualising the New Woman

In 1894, a new phrase entered the English lexicon: the “New Woman” (Grand 1894). Evolving out of discourses surrounding the suffragist, labor, and social purity movements, the New Woman became a much debated term at the fin de siècle . This cultural construction did not retain a single definition but grew to include diverse, multi-faceted interpretations (Ledger & Luckhurst 2000) that developed in journalistic exchanges, prose fiction, and private correspondences (Ledger 1997). Global trade and travel, the Industrial Revolution, women’s re-entrances into the public workforce, promotions of women's education, and the aforementioned sociopolitical movements provided the means and empowerment many women needed to publicly engage in this argument.