New and Old Women

The generational divide between ‘new’ and ‘old’ women was a recurring theme in late Victorian and Edwardian literature and culture. This divide not only reinforced a rhetoric of difference but also encouraged discussions about productive exchange and collaboration between women of different age groups. Within the context of a rapidly modernising British society, these intergenerational dynamics were intricately linked to broader debates surrounding middle-class women’s evolving roles in society and their responsibilities towards their families.

Through a comprehensive analysis of periodical and literary writings from the period, this study examines how cultural perceptions of gender, age(ing), and space shaped middle-class women’s aspirations to lead self-determined lives. It also highlights motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship as central tropes of female experience, analysing them against the backdrop of spatial conceptualisations and a renegotiation of female space.