ABSTRACT

When people spoke of the "New Woman" in the early twentieth century, they were responding to trends that were observable in many American communities: the fact that more young women were going about unchaperoned, living alone or with female friends, speaking out on public issues, and exchanging corsets and trailing gowns for natural waists and ankle-length skirts. Working-class women had prepared the ground by helping to foster a culture of public recreation so free and lively that it attracted participants from the middle class as well. Female professionals had opened other possibilities by building distinguished careers instead of marrying. A third set of pioneers was the group of women who chose to live in a free-spirited style that came to be known as "Bohemian."