Review: Lena Wånggren, Gender, Technology, and the New Woman (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018)

Abstract

Wånggren’s study offers insight into two phenomena of fin-de-siècle culture and literature that have not often been considered in conjunction, namely the New Woman and her relationship with emerging technologies. Whereas the archetype of the bicycling New Woman has become iconic in contemporary media and prominent in New Woman scholarship, Wånggren argues that an even wider variety of technologies provided New Women with the skills necessary to participate actively in the public sphere and modern life at large.