Throughout the text you are able to see the progress that women made and the changes that took place in how they were viewed by society. Women and men in earlier years were placed into separate spheres of influence. The men were supposed to be the breadwinners and the head of the house. While the women were suppose to be mothers and care givers that stayed home and looked pretty. For some time it seem that the women were “okay” with the roles they played as it had been that way for generations. However, as time passed the idea of a new woman developed. Support for women rights grew and women began to take on different roles. Women had jobs, in place garments factories but they were not allowed the same privileges as the men. In Stansell, “American Moderns” the New Woman become more involved in areas like the arts and politics. They were allowed to enter the saloons and interact freely to an extent with the men. They drank beers and spoke on similar issues but there was always that idea of there being a limit to what a women could say and do, as there were still certain ideas of what a “woman” should be, engraved in society.

The idea of the New Woman challenged the older ideas of woman because she was now holding positions in areas that were once dominated by men. By coming into this new role “she” also challenged the idea of men. “Contemporaries saw a general failure of nerve among young men”[Stansell page31].Fast-forwarding a couple chapters and years later, this idea of the new women branches off into feminism. In the section Sexual Modernism, Stansell discusses this feminist idea that’s focused completely equaling the playing fields between men and women. It was no longer just about allowing women to be educated and beautifying their roles as wives and caregivers. It was a type of freedom and independence that redefine the term woman.