New Woman Fiction Essay

The New Woman fiction of the 1880s and 1890s often expressed the displeasure with the contemporary status of women in marriage and in society. The novels portrayed their protagonists as unconventional and rebellious heroines who fought against the traditional Victorian male conception of females being an “angel in the house” and also challenged the traditional canon of morality and behavior. Many New Women novels strongly opposed the idea that home is the only proper place for a women to be. The themes of the novels were mostly comprised of marriage and sex as well as women’s desires of independence and satisfaction. Contemporary critics criticized the sexual content of New Woman novels and such ideas had become the foundation for public debate …show more content…
Many protagonists of New Woman fiction experienced conventional marriage as a degrading and repressive institution because women suffered from domestic abuse and other threats because of their inferior status. The New Women writers would indicate three major areas that women would feel oppressed: marriage, suffrage, and the labor …show more content…
Although most New Woman novelists were women, men also contributed to the genre. In literature, writers would criticize the depiction of the Ideal Womanhood, challenged the traditional patriarchal society, and the belief of marriage and motherhood were the appropriate Writers supported professional aspirations for women, and tried to reconsider the relations between the sexes and called for candor in sexual matters. New Woman fiction emerged out of a feminine rebellion and heightened debates on such issues as about women’s suffrage, education, sex, and women’s independence. New Woman fiction contributed to major changes in women’s lives which included their increased mobility away from family scrutiny, resistance to enforced marital sex, an interest in gynecology, an assertion to birth control information, and the right to