Quote 7
I believe we should have shocked the "New Woman" with our appetites. (8.1)
Mina and Lucy go on a long walk, and are so hungry when they get back that they eat a huge amount, without worrying about being prim and proper.
Quote 8
Some of the "New Women" writers will some day start an idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting. But I suppose the New Woman won't condescend in future to accept; she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it, too! There's some consolation in that. (8.1)
Is Mina making fun of the "New Women"? It's not totally clear. Is she being sarcastic when she says, "And a nice job she will make of it, too"? Mina's not the type of woman who would ever propose to a man—she'd wait to be proposed to. But she's not usually that sarcastic, either. So maybe this is a place where Bram Stoker's own voice is coming in—perhaps he's using Mina as a mouthpiece to poke fun at progressive women.
Quote 9
We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked. (17.59)
Mina makes a generalization about all women here—she claims that all women are, somewhere deep down, very nurturing and maternal. They just have to have the right inspiration for that "mother-spirit" to come out.