The times., 1897-05-23
THE REAL NEW WOMAN
And the Reason for Her Being.

And the Reason for Her Being.
The real reason for the new woman is
not on the surface, and for that reason 1T
has not been exploited TO any great extent,
This much advertised but seldom seen new
woman of the comic papers is supposed To
take up that profession from pure cussed-
ness" because she is tired of being
woman and wants to be as nearly as
possible "a member Of the other division of
humanity She is said to take on cigar
cite smoking and knickerbockers and other
maunish things for pure fun; but she / S
so uncommon an article that she will prob
ably be seen, sooner or later, in the freak
museum of the Barnum & Bailey combi-
nation. They haven't yet been able TO
find her.
The new woman, however, is not alto
gether a myth Women do engage In bus!-
ness and recreation nowadays In ways
which are a decided contrast to the no
tions of our grandfathers, and they are
better educated and are making more
money, occasionally, than was once the
case. When Mary Lyon went a-canyassing
for her female seminary, the pioneer IN
stjtution for the higher education or wo-
man. she was told by one Grabbed old gen
tleman that there was no need ior
woman to know arithmetic, unless she
meant TO drive pigs TO market. The opin-
ion of the whole country has changed on
that point However, this old gentleman
may not have been fairly representative OF
his day and generation, any more than
was DR.. Johnson, when he said that a
womans writing was like dog walking
on its bind legs; it was not done Well, but
you were surprised to find it done at all.
Be that as it may, the new woman, so
far as her newness is concerned, is more
product Of economic than OF educational
conditions She has been made what she
is by the steady march ofanvendon. The
first new woman movement began in New
England, when the cotton and woolen
mills crowded out the spinning-wheels and
baGd-looms.
1t was no longer possible for the farm
er's daughter To compete, at her home, with
the huge machines in the cities, SO she went
to the city and became a new factory
girl When ready-made clothing became so
cheap that only the rich would have their
clothes handmade, the seainstresses were
out Of employment and had to take TO run
ming machines in the shops When the type
writer was lnNHnbtd Jie NOIDdtl NopgiSt
could no longer earn money by taking work
home, and, finding that typewriter was
really no harder to run than a sewing ma
chine, she adopted that In short, as the
hundred avenues Of home employment for
women gradually closed those who were
obliged To earn their living have come out
into the wolld to do it, and they have been
followed by many who were not obliged TO
vention had reduced the number of their
home duties, that they had more time than
they needed and more energy than could be
employed inside their own homes. Add TO
this the wider education, which brings larger
wants TO a woman, as it does to a man,
and you have increased independence in
the woman and increased competition in
the world Of business, mainly because the |
" orld Of business came into the woman's |
home and took away her needle and her
spinning wheel and her loom and her frying |
pan and washtub.
The little home bakery cannot compete |
with the hi bakeries which buy tt cir ma
terials by the carload; and the woman
housekecper with her limited experience |
and capital cannot compete with the |
luxurious club with its saIaried chef and |
central location. The new woman is not /
altogether TO blame for herself if she is push
ing men out of their places; she has been
pushed ont Of her old place by them.
When this country was new almost any
energetic woman could find full scope Cor
Ter energies without going outside her
natural duties as they were defined in
those days. Housekeeping was so complex
an affair that it included at least dozen
trades, and the woman on q farm often
did her share of the teamwork as well
simply because the work had TO be done
and there were not enough Of men to do
1t. The woman who, a hundred years ago,
would have found vent for her execu-
tive ability ia manufacturing all the cloth
ing for her family, looking after corps
OF servants, carrying on a poultry farm,
making pickles and preserves, and Incl
dentally bringing up family OF ten or a
dozen children, is now, if she happens to
marry q business man. set down in a city
house with all the modern improvements
and half OF her household goods ready
made cheaper and better than she could
possibly make them, and is or was, told
that her home is all the sphere she needs
If her husband is rich She becomes a So
Ciety queen, perhaps, or philanthropist,
or q director Of various organizations;
and her children get just as much of her
time and attention,if if she is the ri ght kind of
mother, as her grandmothCr's children got
in the intervals OF looking after the house
Keeping, the kitchen garden, and the live
stock This energetic woman may he per-
fectly able to do her own housework every
bit of it, but she doesn't do it out of regard
for her husbands position, or because she
has not been trained TO that business till
every duty Is a pleasure, as her grand
mother was. 1t will be seen that she is
in rather a dilemma. She has her grand
force OF character and no outlet
for 1t; and force of character shut up Ia
Itself is apt to turn vinegary. 1t is my
notion that women who come into proml-
nence as disturbing elements and are rest
leV and discontented are often Of this
vefytype In spite OF all the talk about the
larger opportunities of women nowadays,
|hefe is this 70 be said: Mrs Uptodate's