Virgin Soil is a short story written by Mary Chavelita Dunne under her pseudonym George Egerton.
This short story opens with a post wedding scene between a gray-haired older man and a seventeen-year-old bride.
The story flashes forward five years and the once young bride has come back home to see her mother.
The story flashes to later in the evening as Flo is sleeping and her mother kisses her and slips notes into her bag.
Her responds to Flo explaining her harmful marriage and her decision to leave is what will society think and the scandal that will ensue .
A woman who understands of the unfairness of power in society and the lack of justice for women's roles in the nineteenth century.
The first half of the story depict Flo as a young innocent bride that is a victim to a “gray-haired man” with “strong white teeth”.
When Flo returns to her childhood home five year later, she has had to learn about men, the power imbalance to women, and the role of marriage.
This story paints abortion as a byproduct of marriage abuse during this time period and as a woman's last line of defense from their continued victimization.
[3] Flo's decision to confront her mother and blame her for her marriage abuse represents some of the rage of the New Women movement.