About this artwork

This stereoscopic card shows a bizarre scene of a ‘new woman’ dressed in men’s clothes with a small bowler hat perched on her head. She is casually sitting reading The Ladies Home Journal whilst her husband is shunned into the background scrubbing clothes by hand. Although there is certainly a humorous side to this image, it is also intended to reflect the backlash against women as they pushed for equality and the right to vote during the late nineteenth century. It is a typical example of many photographs that were produced at this time which suggest what the world would be like if women adopted traditionally male roles and men were left to do the ‘woman’s’ work.

Updated before 2020

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Benneville Lloyd Singley

Benneville Lloyd Singley