The New Woman:
As a maiden I’ve always enjoyed the arts, specifically books and poetry. Throughout the years, especially after furthering my schooling and becoming the local lawyer’s clerk, I’ve learned more about myself and the topics I enjoy reading about. My interest in women working in the modern world is truly one close to my heart. My current read is Hours of Working Women by Ellen Piers. In the novel, she talks about dealing with everyday life as a new woman in our day and age. Specifically, how no matter what you do and how smart you are a man will always look down upon you. I am an educated, strong woman who went to college but still I get told several times a day that I need to settle down and find a husband to take care of but I am so much more than that. I like working and getting paid for it. When I’m tired of working, I like a comfortable chair, a cigar. Why am I any less deserving of this job than a man? I am well rounded and more than capable of providing for myself probably more than any man in my field of study. I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today and it’s maddening that I have to work ten times as hard to prove myself to the male race, or even the group of women who look down on getting jobs and leaving behind the olden ways of life. Piers’ book reminds me that I deserve everything I’ve worked so hard for. I am so much more.
Editorial Commentary:
After days of research of what it was like to live as a young, working woman in the 20th century, I came across a diary of a woman. She includes a page from a book she was reading at the time titled Hours of a Working Woman, written by Ellen Piers. The New Woman discusses her education and love for reading novels concerning the progression of women in her day and age. In her journal entry she highlights her displeasure with the stigma of unmarried, working women. She reveals that often at work she gets snarky comments concerning her personal life, how she is unladylike, and won’t ever find a husband. In my most recent studies, The Domestic Division of Labour, the authors discuss the Women’s Liberation Movement. The Women’s Liberation Movement was a campaign to achieve fundamental shifts in the attitudes towards housework. This movement was necessary to capture the attention of people of the 1960s and ‘70s (Sisterhood and After Research Team). This is interesting because from the late 1800s to even today, women have had to prove to society that they belong in the workplace (Barrett). This can be seen in the huge gender wage gaps between men and women. Even the term man-splaining that men must over explain certain ideas to women because they see them as lesser. I truly am inspired by the New Woman’s words, as she realizes she is so much more than just what others thought of her.
Citation:
The British Library. “The Domestic Division of Labour.” The British Library, 2013, www.bl.uk/sisterhood/articles/the-domestic-division-of-labour, https://www.bl.uk/sisterhood/articles/the-domestic-division-of-labour.
Barrett, Kara. Digital Commons at Buffalo State Victorian Women and Their Working Roles. 2013.
“Early 1900s “Hours with Working Women, RST” Hardcover Book for Sale on Ruby Lane.” Ruby Lane, www.rubylane.com/item/1855696-PM-AB-G1-0103/Early-1900s-x27Hours-Workin…. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.