Essay Questions

Lucy calls Fanny "an anachronism". What does she mean by this?

Lucy is referring to Fanny's outdated view of the roles of the genders, which she feels are clearly set out, and traditional. Fanny believes that women should focus on domesticity and on being generally sweet and submissive. Lucy is scathing about these qualities and feels that Fanny is an example of the kind of old-fashioned woman that both holds more progressive women back, and also exemplifies the kind of woman that men want to be with.

Fanny does not take an active role in the photography business, because she believes that a woman's place is in the home. She acts as the housekeeper for the sisters, and keeps the home in the way that she would if married. This is another example of her being an anachronism; time has moved on but Fanny does not seem to understand that and clings to the roles and traditions of the past.

How are the Lorimer sisters representative of the New Women movement?

The sisters represent the New Women movement in the way that they are making their own way in the world, and are out working and running a business, traditionally male roles. They are examples of what can be achieved when women are given the opportunity to be treated equally, and to have an equal chance to earn their own money. They are at the forefront of feminism because they are charting their own course, rather than having a man chart if for them.

Lucy is the strongest example of the New Woman feminist movement. She takes an apprenticeship and then is the driving force behind the business. Even once she is married, and a mother, she still continues to work as a photographer, changing her area of specialization to children's portraits. This shows both the new interests in her personal ife, and the passion that she has for working in the business world. Lucy is pragmatic and practical, and is much like the traditional "man of the house". She is fighting against stereotypes and that is a strong example of something that the New Woman movement was striving to do.

Nineteenth century women began the feminist movement and passed the torch from one generation to another. What do modern women and the New Women like the Lorimer sisters have in common? In what way are they profoundly different?

One of the key things that today's women and the New Women have in common is battling gender bias in the workplace. When customers hire the sisters for a photography job, they expect to pay less than they would pay a male photographer. They value the work produced by a women less than they value the work produced by a man. This has not changed and today's women are still paid seventy cents less in the dollar than men are. This is something that today's women and the New Women have in common.

The key difference between today's women and the New Women generation is that today a woman who demands equality, wants to work, and still have a family, is not given the moniker of "feminist". In the late Nineteenth Century, women were still by and large conditioned to view the world in the way that Fanny Lorimer views it, with outdated opinions on gender roles. This new feeling earned them the title of Feminist. A woman nowadays who wants equality is a woman. It's not necessary to take the title of feminist in order to demand equality. In the Lorimer sisters' time, it was still a new and daring thing to express a desire for or belief in, and for that reason they became a new political movement of their own.