Gender Roles, Subject, & Power

Salmah Aldaghady

Art and Women

October 19th, 2019

Gender Roles, Subject, & Power

During the Middle Ages in Europe, as it was known to be a very oppressive time for the women. There were rules they had to follow which were very strict gender roles in a patriarchal culture. Women at young age were taught and trained to get married at a young age. According to the Guerilla Girls, “women were usually engaged to be married at age 12 and were married by age 15” (Guerrilla 22). Women were expected to show submission to their husbands because it was seen as men were the ones that always has to be superior. Women were expected to be submissive of men because the man always had to be the ones who hold the role of being superior. During this era all women were expected to stay at home and be submissive to their husband. This means that she needs to be a housewife and follow all her husband’s rules and guidelines to provide for her husband and her family. According to the Guerilla Girls, “A woman had to obey her husband, and he could beat her if she didn’t” (Guerrilla 22). This quote shows the severity of how submissive a woman needed to be. With this being said, women in this time period couldn’t get an education because if they went out to seek knowledge that would take away time from her being at home and cleaning, cooking, taking care of their children etc. of whatever sort her husband commanded her to do and that was not allowed unless further consequences would happen.

Moving forward to the Renaissance time period, things got better and easier for women. In the Renaissance time period women gained more freedom.  According to the Guerilla Girls, “one of the few ways a woman could work as an artist was to be born into a family of artists that needed assistance in the family workshop” (Guerrilla Girls, 29). Being an artist gave more freedom to the women and allowed her to express herself more. In the Whitney Chadwick reading “Women, Art, and Society”, Chadwick says, “Bologna was unique among Italian cities for having both a University which had educated women since the Middle Ages” (Chadwick,87). Bologna was a really great city in which women could went to the university to get educated. Here you can see the difference in time periods and how much freedom women had in the Renaissance time period. The rich women were at more of an advantage because it was easier for them to go to Bologna and advertise their work there. The school of Bologna was really great for women because it gave them the opportunity to learn law, philosophy and art.

Furthermore, the nineteenth century was an even better time period for women. This time period allowed women to work outside of their homes which gave them even more opportunity to express themselves rather than being completely submissive to their husbands by having no freedom. The nineteenth century was the beginning era where women’s voices were heard towards gaining more freedom and equality. Rosa Bonheur’s was a women artist who encouraged women to be rebellious and fight for what they want. Rosa Bonheur’s father believed in gender equality and education for women. Rosa’s father was a director of an art school for women and at that school Rosa learned how to express herself through learning how to paint. In this time period Rosa was known to be as a very successful due to her pushing other women to fight for their own rights. One of Rosa’s beliefs were to “Let women establish their claims by great and good works and not by conventions” (Guerrilla Girls,49) Rosa voiced her gender inequality and disagreement about women not being able to voice their opinion complete and she wanted to encourage other women like her to do the same. Through Rosa’s artwork she demonstrated the struggles and battles women go through against men. After Rosa’s remarkable painting called The Horse Fair, she become one of the best-loved artists in Europe. In the image below, it represents what women endure when battling back with men and restraining by men. Chadwick says, "Images of animals frequently symbolized the vices and virtues of women. Constantly exhorted to rise”. Women were so degraded to the degree that they were compared to animals which is so offensive because everyone needs to be treated like they are human.

              

Rosa Bonheur inspired many other women to be powerful through their artwork. An example of this is a woman named Harriet Powers who was born into slavery and that on its own is a very big tragedy. Being a slave means facing a lot of racism and discrimination. Harriet was one of the most famous women to have her quits in a museum. Her quit was called the “Pictorial Quilt” and was made in the year of 1895. At first the quilt was discovered by a school teacher named Jennie B. Smith at a local fair. She noticed this quilt and offered Harriet five dollars but Harriet refused. She was still able to see it when she wanted to. Jennie later on entered the quilt in the Cotton States Exposition and there was a group of women that were amazed by it and insisted for Harriet to make another one.

Despite their troubles, these jobs affected the women from multiple points of view. For instance, during medieval occasions, women were getting forced into marriages at a youthful age and were viewed as the inferior contrasted with men. Women were particularly obliged at that time. As stated before, the woman's role was only to be a housewife who had to cook, clean, as well as take care of her husband and their children. The only exception there was for a woman to get an education was if she became a nun. Going into the Renaissance time, despite the fact that ladies were as yet optional to men, the women were able to gain more rights by allowing them to gain more freedom and to become an artist.

Harriet Powers, Pictorial Quilt, 1895

Work Cited:

The Guerrilla Girls, The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art (New York, Penguin       Books, 1998)

Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art, and Society, 4th or 5th edition, (New York: Thames and Hudson), 2007.