Who is the New woman?

by Hailey Juen

Who is the New Woman? The New Woman is outcasted. The New Woman is outspoken. The New Woman is bold, fearless and controversial but in a respectful way. She doesn’t keep her voice down. She wasn’t only made for marriage and love; she was made for much more. The New Woman is who our generation is learning how to be. The New Woman is unapologetically herself.

being put on them by society. The poets of the 19th and 20th centuries ran with this idea. Famous poet and author, Kate Chopin, wrote a poem called “An Egyptian Cigarette” that features a woman stepping away from her companions to smoke her cigarette in case they would be irritated by the smell. These women were of high society and didn’t understand why the woman would be smoking, but the reasoning is fairly clear to the reader. She wants freedom, the separation from that life, to not be tied down to the way of living that told women they had to be presentable and soft every day of their lives. This next poem written by myself was inspired by Chopin’s singsongy style and content and tells of a woman at a party gazing longingly through the window at a woman smoking a cigarette outside.

The music swells but all I see is gray Smoke swirling in the air without delay I dream of putting it to my lips

As she puffs hers in an amorous way