The great social transformations of the 20th century in Russia and Europe invariably led to a revision of established gender conventions. It was during these periods that the so-called new women appeared in culture - characters who reflected the values of the progressive part of society and hopes for even greater female emancipation. Svetlana Smagina in her book puts forward the concept that social changes are represented in cinema precisely through such characters, and analyzes in detail the images of new women in the national cinema of the Scandinavian countries, Germany, France and Russia. The author demonstrates how, over time, heroines who previously did not fit into the patriarchal coordinate system and occupied a marginal place in society become mouthpieces of revolutionary ideas and new feminist values. The researcher focuses on three historical periods that fundamentally changed the development of not only Russia in the 20th century, but also Western countries: the revolutionary transformations that began in 1917 (including a kind of pre-revolutionary period), the change in social formation after 1991 in Russia, and the period of youth unrest in the 1960s in Europe. Svetlana Smagina is a Doctor of Art History, leading researcher at the Analytical Department of the Research Center for Film Education and Screen Arts at VGIK.