new womann.
/ˌnjuː ˈwʊmən/, U.S. /ˈn(j)u ˈwʊmən/ Frequently with capital initials. A woman who is considered different from previous generations; esp. one who challenges or rejects the traditional roles of wife, mother, or homemaker, and advocates independence for women and equality with men.Chiefly with reference to the period between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > [noun] > discrimination or inegalitarianism > by sex > opposition to > advocate or supporter of
sister1792
-righter1854
woman's righter1854
new woman1865
woman's rightist1869
women's righter1870
femininist1873
women's rightist1875
liberationist1879
emancipatress1882
feminist1887
freewoman1895
equal righter1896
womanist1902
women liberator1969
women's libber1970
libber1971
1865 Westm. Rev. Oct. 568 The New Woman, as we read of her in recent novels, possesses not only the velvet , but the claws of the tiger. She is no longer the Angel, but the Devil in the House.
1873 M. Clemmer Ten Years in Washington xxvi. 261 This lady..represents what one sees continually in Washington—a new woman. Not new to the city merely, but new to position and honor.
1894 Keyboard Nov. 176/2 We tremble at the thought of a specimen of the ‘New Woman’ tuning our piano.
1904 C. H. Hawes In Uttermost East (ed. 2) 459 I..offered to drive her home, but she laughingly replied, ‘Oh no, thank you; I am a “new woman”, you see; and besides, I have my revolver!’
1963 Life 1 Feb. 42 The women shown..have cut a swath through traditional classes and cultures and are, collectively as well as individually, the new women of the New Europe.
1987 M. Woodman in L. C. Mahdi et al. Betwixt & Between (1994) xii. 210 The ‘new woman’ who accepts the new stereotype may become anorexic in her attempts to fit into the Calvin Klein jeans that restrict her movement even more than her mother's Playtex girdle.
2009 National Post (Canada) (Nexis) 25 Sept. (Post Movies section) 12 She [sc. Lee Miller] features heavily in these '20s portraits. She's the embodiment of a new woman: independent, self-assured and ready for adventure.
Compounds
General attributive.
ΚΠ
1894 Bk. Buyer Oct. 423/1 Two classes of novels are much in favor—the ‘new-woman’ fiction, and stories in local color.
1895 Munsey's Mag. Sept. 630/2 Mrs. Clara S. Foltz of San Francisco is one of the heroines of the ‘new woman’ movement, but her work has been too serious and her achievements too important for them to be confounded with a fad.
1921 Z. Grey Call of Canyon (1924) x. 232 I'm not taking into consideration the new-woman species, the faddist or the reformer.
1948 Rotarian June 55/1 The New Woman educationist does not want to turn a woman into a man, but to harmonize her intellectual and extra-domestic activities with the natural and necessary duties of the mother and homemaker.
1988 L. Tickner Spectacle of Women iv. 183/1 Many of the popular New Woman novelists of the 1890s were women..who wrote passionately about women's right to lead fulfilled and independent lives for an avid readership.
1997 Differences (Nexis) 9 25 What is this New Woman heroine to do if not to marry, and what is the novel to do if she desists?
Derivatives
ˌnew ˈwomandom n. rare
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society > society and the community > social attitudes > [noun] > discrimination or inegalitarianism > by sex > opposition to > advocate or supporter of > collectively
new womandom1894
women liberator1969
1894 Granta 8 Dec. 122 The Alexandra (Dublin) ladies..are models of new womandom.
ˌnew ˈwomanish adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > [adjective] > discriminatory or inegalitarian > by sex > opposition to > advocate or supporter of
advanced1871
liberated1887
new womanish1894
1894 New Ireland Rev. Dec. 669 It is above the mass of readers..and therefore has not been heard of so much as it might be if it were decadent, or new-womanish.
1994 NOVEL 27 145 Her character has a distinctly New Womanish air: we immediately learn of her ‘bold courage’, ‘original mind’, and support for the suffragettes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1865