WRITER, OUIDA, MARIA LOUISA DE LA RAMEE – 11 Ravenscourt Square, W6

 

It was Ouida (pen name of the English novelist Maria Louise Ramé), storywriter and novelist, who took the now famous phrase ‘the new woman’ from British author and activist Sarah Grand’s essay ‘ The New Aspect of the Woman Question’. With this term she wanted to give those power-seeking females of her times, who were prepared to overturn conventions and accepted notions of femininity, a name. These women showed their ‘emancipation’ in every day life through practices like, for example, smoking, riding bicycles, using bold language or taking the omnibus or train unescorted. They sometimes belonged to all-female clubs like “Mrs. Massingberd’s Pioneer Club” or societies where like-minded individuals met and interchanged ideas. New Women wanted their own careers, desired sexual liberation from male suppression, and proper laws against marital violence.

The New Woman movement was a social and literary phenomenon and is generally considered the predecessor of the suffrage movement. Due to this movement, the latter half of the 19th century saw passionate discussions and agitation on matters such as marriage and divorce laws, women’s property and custody rights, educational and employment opportunities for women as well as a lively debate on female suffrage.