Though the femme fatale resents economic dependency on male characters and incites a backlash against male-defined morality, she marries to satisfy her primary purpose of social and economic advancement. By transforming public opinion concerning the oppressive double standard and generating new female identities for women misrepresented and undermined by male definitions, the New Woman wants to do away with this subordination altogether so that women are no longer forced to marry men for economic security. Despite these differences, both Victorian representations of women offer a stronger, more influential image of women that inspires middle-class women to revolt against sexist oppression.
Like the femme fatale, the New Woman embodies female rebellion, exposing sexual exploitation in marriage and gender inequality. As a writer, artist, or social reformer like Eleanor Marx, Olive Schreiner, or Sarah Grand, the New Woman is a feminist activist undaunted by ideological apparatuses that sexually exploit women. Marx, Schreiner, and Grand aggressively seek new professional options for women in male-dominated fields and look for alternatives to marriage. These options allow a Victorian woman to be a spinster, a sexual libertarian, or an unhappy married woman pushing for divorce. The femme fatale, in contrast, is still subjected to the double standard, though she implicitly points to limited options for single bourgeois women employed as governesses while seeking wealthy male suitors who can increase her social and economic status.
While the femme fatale figuratively exploits domesticity as a marketing tool for young, enterprising women, the New Woman novel puts marriage to trial. New Women writers Sarah Grand and Olive Schreiner explore alternatives to marriage and create heroines with strong sexual urges, though these novelists do not mean to abandon the marriage concept altogether. Rather, they encourage sexual openness and advocate sex education for middle-class women. By attacking the double standard inscribed in Victorian family life, the New Woman is really attacking sexual repression—not sexual relations. Male-constructed sexual ideology suggests that female desire is unnatural, immoral, and impure while encouraging Victorian men to have sexual experiences.