THE NEW WOMAN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

The XIXth century had seen changes concerning the rights and situation of women as you can read in this passage from the Norton Anthology of English Literature.
By the end of the century the New Woman was increasing her presence in the public arena.
However, women in England did not get the vote until 1918, the year when World War I ended.
To look at two perspectives of the matter of the New Woman I've chosen two remarkable writers with active involvement in culture in those times: the novel written by  Ella Hepworth Dixon in 1894 entitled The story of a modern woman, and Edward Carpenter's book Woman and her place in a free society (1894).  
Edward Carpenter was a sensitive poet too, I'd like to finish this post with his poem to pay homage to those people who struggled for freedom and equality in the 20th century.

                       

  LOVE'S VISION

T night in each other’s arms,

Content, overjoyed, resting deep deep down in the darkness,

Lo! the heavens opened and He appeared--

Whom no mortal eye may see,

Whom no eye clouded with Care,

Whom none who seeks after this or that, whom none who has not escaped from self. 

There--in the region of Equality, in the world of Freedom no longer limited,

Standing as a lofty peak in heaven above the clouds,

From below hidden, yet to all who pass into that region most clearly visible--

He the Eternal appeared.

Read more at http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/loves_vision.html#Te8Aj6EIt0Keyg1p.99