The New Negro Woman participated in the New Woman’s revolution, but with added challenges linked to prevailing racial stereotypes
The New Woman was always about mobility. She was about getting out of the house and creating a new life for herself. She was about to become visible and active. She was about change and new ways.
The debate over women’s proper dress became quite heated in Victorian times. Women’s ‘rational dresses’ caused much anxiety and concern.
Before the 1920s, women didn’t use much makeup because of respectability and safety. But in the 1920s, makeup became acceptable and glamorous, and every young woman used it.
Jazz and the New Woman of the 1920s kind of go together. They were in great part about the same things: freedom of expression, discovery and exploration. No surprise that many flappers were also ‘jazz babies’.
Industrial production and the consumer culture unexpectedly advanced the concept of the New Woman and allowed many women to get in touch with it.
Before the 1900s, the concept of hemline didn’t exist. Only when the length of women’s skirts started to rise the hemline became a site of social debate.
The Gibson Girl is the first incarnation of the New Woman. She was the first woman to seek freedom of expression and mobility. Hers was a soft but very important revolution.
The flapper was the last and more mature incarnation of the New Woman. She was a free, ambitious, pleasure-seeking woman who wanted to be equal to men.
The ensemble separate was the distinctive fashion of the Gibson Girl. It was the first fashion that simplified the accepted women’s clothes and made them lighter and more comfortable.
The Rainy Daisies were a group of New York women who advocated more comfortable clothes for women at the end of the 1890s.
The New Woman was closely associated with the consumer culture. She became an icon of it and certainly was a strong consumer herself.