Gender Roles, Subject and Power

     As women, they always had certain gender roles that they had to follow, so men were always superior to women. Men artists had the power and superiority in the arts compared to women artists. Men’s artworks were always looked at as better and was more accepted in society compared to women’s artwork. Men had dominance in the art world that women could not compete with because of their gender. Women were considered the caregivers of the family, so they were not taken as seriously as artists. They were looked at as inferior to a man in society, so their roles were different from the roles’ of a man. “Women were supposed to be seen and not heard … Females were able to speak their minds but their thoughts and ideas were shaped by men” (Cloud 1). A woman’s world revolved around men because men controlled everything a woman says and does. A women’s role was to be obedient and submit to men. St. Paul said “a woman must be a learner, listening quietly and with due submission. I do not permit a woman to be a teacher, nor must a woman domineer over a man; she should be quiet” (Chadwick, 45).

Rebecca Solomon, The Governess, 1853
The painting shows the gender roles as a wife.

     A painting that shows woman’s gender roles is The Governess by Rebecca Solomon. In the painting, Solomon highlights a woman in a pink dress as the wife and the lady of the household. The woman in the pink dress is young and well dressed, which is the ideal feminine image. The woman in the pink dress is shown entertaining the man of the house, which depicts the woman gender role as being an object for men.

Edith Hayllar, Feeding the Swans, 1889

It shows the gender roles of women in the upper middle class as they age.

  Women in different classes had different roles in society, but all women were still inferior to the men in their lives and their role was to take care of the household whatever their class was. “Low class women were expected to be housewives and take care of everything to do with the house ... The expectation of working class women was ... to work for their husbands and help them run their business ... Upper class women may have had servants and workers working for them but the women were still expected to take care of the house hold” (Cloud 1). An example of the upper-class women gender roles is in Edith Hayllar, Feeding the Swans. The painting shows the roles of women from Victoria England. The picture depicts two girls below the steps to show how from a young age, woman are domestic caretakers. The higher you are up to the steps, the older you are in the female lifetime. Up the steps, it shows a woman getting courted, which shows the role of a woman finding a man to marry.

     “Revolutionary thinkers like Rousseau saw a woman's place, according to both ‘nature’ and ‘reason,’ to be in her home, taking care of those around her” (Guerrilla Girls 39). The expected roles of women in Europe during the Middle Ages was taking care of the home and family. It was a woman’s duty to be a housewife and they were expected to do whatever their husband said. If they were not staying at home, they had very simple jobs. “Women were relegated to unskilled activities in the guilds at an historical moment when the demand was growing for ‘designers’ who could plan patterns for figured cloths and style the finished pieces” (Chadwick 69). Since society believed that women were not capable of doing regular jobs, they were assigned jobs that required no intelligence or experience. Society believed that women were weaker, less intelligent, and could not do the same jobs as men.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and her Maidservant, 1618

Orazio Gentileschi, Judith and her Maidservant, 1610 

The two paintings of Judith and her Maidservant by Artemisia Gentileschi and Orazio Gentileschi shows the different perspectives on women’s gender roles from a woman and male artists.

     Roles changed throughout the Renaissance and into the 19C because society has grown more accepting to women artists. Since the 16th century, most of the female artists were lucky enough to become an artist with help from their father. Artist like Artemisia Gentileschi had an artist father, Orazio Gentileschi that accepted her talents even though she were female. Even though he accepted her as an artist, he still believed that men were superior to women. Judith and the Maidservant is a story of Judith and her maidservant slaying the Holofernes, the Syrian King who brought danger to her community. The daughter and father duo both painted Judith and her Maidservant, but depicted the women in the painting in different ways. Orazio Gentileschi depicts the women as being dazed and confused about what to do after killing the Holofernes. He wants to show how women are weak and their job is to nurture and not to kill. On the other hand, Artemisia Gentileschi shows Judith and her maidservant as brave and knowing what to do after killing the Syrian King. The Gentileschis both painted the same situation but painted them differently from dissimilar women gender roles perspectives.
     In the 19th century, female artists became more well known, but it also depended on where they lived and if they were wealthy. “Geography and class played a significant role in shaping the experience of nineteenth-century American women artists” (Chadwick 211). Where the women lived and if they were rich or poor affected if the women artist was successful or not, and it also depended on their location because some places may be more acceptable to women artists than others.
     Even though women were becoming more popular from their artwork, they were still not considered equal to men. “Sensitive to the implication of exhibiting women’s art only in relation to other areas of feminine creative activity, and angered because no attention was given to women’s wages and working conditions” (Chadwick 228). Even as time went by, women were still not looked at seriously and society did not care about women, so female artists were being overlooked. Society mainly concentrated on art made by men and disregarded women. Men were treated with more respect and importance compared to women.

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames & Hudson, 2012.

Cloud, Amanda. “Gender Roles of Women in the Renaissance.” Gender Roles of Women in the Renaissance, www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/shrew/acloud.htm.

Girls, Guerrilla. The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.