Mrs.  Fletcher  Howard,  who  silso  read  a  paper  on  this  subject  before  the
Iowa  Association,  on  the  other  hand,  contends  that  the  "  new  woman  "
does  exist,  and  that  she  is  the  necessity  and  logical  outcome  of  the  new


35  8  REPORT  ON  THE  PROGRESS  OF  PHARMACY.
and  advanced  condition  of  affairs  represented  in  the  nineteenth  century.
New  and  hitherto  unknown  forces  have  combined  to  produce  a  spirit  of
unrest,  which,  breaking  its  barriers  of  custom  and  usage,  has  culminated
in  the  embodiment,  "new  woman."  Thus,  mentally,  we  find  that  the
woman  of  to-day  is  far  in  advance  of  the  woman  of  the  past.  With  in-
creased opportunities  for  an  education,  which  she  improves  to  the  utmost,
woman's  range  of  thought  and  action  has  broadened,  until  her  horizon  is
only  limited  by  her  desires.  The  success  which  has  crowned  her  efforts  in
the  realms  of  medicine,  surgery,  law,  politics,  the  pulpit,  and  the  press,
prove  that  to-day  woman  is  the  peer  of  her  brother,  man.  All  fields  are
now  open  to  her — the  professions,  arts  and  skilled  labor — and  Mrs.  Howard
predicts  that  the  phrase  "  new  woman  "  will  lose  its  reproach,  and  be  the
term  by  which  husband,  lover  and  son  will  be  most  proud  to  do  her  honor.
