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132 “The New Woman” Rev. Ella E. Bartlett R Ella E. Bartlett (1849–?), an ordained minister in the Universalist society, was born in Connecticut and lectured throughout the East Coast and upper Midwest promoting women’s suffrage, prohibition, and labor reform. Bartlett’s article “The New Woman,” reprinted here, originally was illustrated with line drawings of journalist and lecturer Kate Field, Jane Addams, Frances Willard, and Susan B. Anthony.1 The periodical in which Bartlett’s“NewWoman”was published,the American Jewess, was the only English-language, nineteenth-century publication of Jewish women’s thought. It was also the only nationally circulating Jewish publication in America at the time. Begun in April 1895 under the editorship of Rosa Sonneschein, the American Jewess,“a Monthly Magazine of Social, Religious and Literary Subjects,”was directed primarily at an upper-middle-class audience and included sections on science and medicine, youth entertainment, music and the arts, and fashion. Although it featured articles on domestic science and fashion, the magazine also supported a wide range of progressive causes including suffrage and settlement work. Even as writers urged their readers not to lose their femininity,theycondonedbicycleridingandbloomers.Writersprofiled“Successful Business Women”and figures such as Hannah Greenbaum Solomon,founder and president of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW). American Jewess also advocated greater equality in Jewish religious life. At a time when women were relegated to a clearly subordinate role in Jewish religious traditions—they were excluded from playing any significant role in religious leadership, their names were not included in synagogue membership lists, and they could not attend synagogue meetings or vote—the American Jewess advocated greater American Jewess, July 1895, 169–171. temperance, social purity, and maternalism 133 religious equality. Although the magazine ceased publication in 1899, it appears to have done fairly well, boasting a circulation of nearly 31,000 in 1898.2 The adjective “new” has been applied to women with startling frequency of late. Almost every printed page bears evidence of her ubiquity as well as “newness” of the average contributor: What the new woman has done, is doing, or will do, is so persistently set forth that one is led to think that a new order of the “genus homo” has been discovered; yet a little study and research shows that the discovery is, after all, only the finding of eyes to see and ears to hear, on the part of the discoverer, and not a very new order of women. Does the new woman manifest, with voice and pen, an interest in questions of national importance? Did not Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Moses, do the same as well as the other women in the days of Saul and David, and in still later days? Does the new woman compose songs of praise and thanksgiving? Is not her prototype found in Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and is not the literature of all subsequent time enriched with the contributions of women? Does the new woman ask for equal rights in the guardianship of her own children ? The mothers of Israel had this right or Moses had not been saved to be the deliverer of Israel from Egyptian bondage, or Samuel have been given to the service of the temple and fitted for the prophetic office. Does the new woman ask for more just property rights? So did the daughters of Zelophehad and other women,and the Lord commanded that their claim be heeded, and the necessary legislation be made to insure the same rights to all other women. Is the new woman suspected of a desire to wear the judicial ermine? Did not Deborah judge Israel for forty years, during which time, the land had peace because of her just and beneficent rule? Would the new women lead armies to victory over evil? Did not Deborah lead the army of Israel to victory over the hosts of Sisera, and did not Sisera fall by the hand of Jael, whose deed is celebrated in song composed by a woman, and preserved for over four thousand years as a source of instruction and inspiration to others? Does the new woman preach the word? She is by no means new on that account. In David’s time it is said that “The Lord gave the word and great was the company of the women that published [preached or proclaimed] it.” Does the new woman engage in trade or commerce, does she manage real estate transactions, is...

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