Metropolitan Magazine 1895, "The New Woman" and "The March of Progress"

Metropolitan Magazine 1895, "The New Woman" and "The March of Progress"

These articles appeared consecutively in the December 1895 issue of Metropolitan magazine. "The New Woman: What She Is and What She Does," profiles a series of so-called "New Women" who have occupations including that of department-store window-dresser, archaeologist, composer, and so on. Others are highlighted because they successfully overpower burglars. One is featured because she has popularized the carrying of canes by women. The subsequent article highlights technological innovations including the "Trolley sprinkler" and a bicycle that has an ice skate for the front wheel, so that it can be more easily used (supposedly) in wintry conditions. 

Both of these articles portray their subjects in less-than-totally serious lights, to the extent that it makes you wonder if they are mocking the idea of the New Woman, on the one hand, and technological progress, on the other. They also make some of the more fantastical descriptions of American society in Martin Dressler seem less fantastic-- more believable. Of the skate-bicycle, the author claims that it is an "entirely practicable affair" (433); however, it's not actually clear how the cyclist would actually propel such a device across an icy surface. Likewise, it's not clear that the article is actually celebrating the New Woman for her intellectual attainments. Arranging department store displays is not that different from decorating a home; and the archeologist is admired more for climbing the Alps (the subject of a full-page photograph) than for actually pursuing archeological study.

"The New Woman: Who She Is and What She Does," Metropolitan Magazine , December 1895: 429-31; "The March of Progress, Metropolitan Magazine, Dec. 1895: 432-33.

Jean Lee Cole