Date of Award
5-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Philosophy
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine who the New Woman was, a figure of British feminism at the end of the Victorian Era. The New Woman presented Victorian Britain with an alternative model of womanhood that differed greatly from the ideal Victorian Woman. The New Woman was conceived in the pages of fiction by women writers who each had their own ideas on feminism. The New Woman triggered a panic over Victorian gender roles that in turn led to the creation by the Victorian media of another New Woman. However, the New Woman in practice did not entirely threaten Victorian patriarchy, but aided Britain and the empire through work in the public sphere. The New Woman was a complex figure in literature, media, and in practice. There was no single New Woman, but a multitude, and each spanned the entire spectrum of late Victorian feminism.
Recommended Citation
Clemons, Vicente Edward, "THE NEW WOMAN IN FICTION AND HISTORY: FROM LITERATURE TO WORKING WOMAN" (2016). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 76.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/76