Women and crafts

Crafts are part of every culture across the world and are affected by the cultural values of their community. The relationship between men and crafts has historically been different to the relationship between women and crafts, with expectations, rules of behaviour, and even laws and regulations varying according to gender. For example, in some places and time periods, married women were not allowed to open craft workshops in their own names, but could work within the family business. In the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe, it was not uncommon for women to supervise and administer the family business during the men's prolonged absences.

During the 19th century, the notion of ’separate spheres’ between male and female life became more rigid in the bourgeois classes. Women saw themselves more relegated to productive activities linked to domestic life. The Industrial Revolution spurred on the development of a large workforce of women and children from the working class. This reduced the number of traditional artisanal workshops and impacted the employment of women.

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, however, Europe and the USA witnessed a flourishing of philanthropic initiatives linked to the redemption of disadvantaged women relegated to domestic servitude. Schools and workshops were opened, especially for bobbin lace, lace and embroidery crafts. The work of these women can be thought of as artisanal (manual and creative), but the structure that supports it derives from American philanthropic entrepreneurship and has nothing to do with the artisan workshops of medieval origin.

Female craft work often took place at home and was handed down from mother to daughter, with no age limits other than those related to health. Technological advancements like the invention of eyeglasses and pedal sewing machines presented real revolutions in the working lives of women.

It was common, when the culture and the climate permitted it, for women to gather in small groups to work together. In this way, they passed knowledge from one generation to another and took advantage of the opportunity to form cooperative social groups.

With the development of technical tools to support crafts (such as the sewing machine), the traditional relationship between ’master’ and apprentice - or mother and daughter - in small home repair and tailoring workshops - was enriched. Vocational schools were created, usually strictly divided by gender.

Some handicrafts in which men appear to dominate actually derive from domestic productions managed by women. This is the case with beer - in the Middle Ages, women could sell it only when they had produced more than could be used by the family. Married women could trade it only together with their husbands, while widows and unmarried women were allowed to both produce and trade it.

Looking at the history of women's craftsmanship between the sixties and today we see very different phenomena. In the Global South higher female education has led to a progressive abandonment of traditional craftsmanship, which had often remained alive especially in rural areas or in families strongly linked to traditional values. In Europe and the USA, on the contrary, there have been moments of strong "idealisation" of artisanal work as a protest movement against the consumer society and the capitalist system. From hippies to eco-warriors to cottagecore aesthetic lovers, craftsmanship has been practised with mixed results and very variable duration. Women, even in these cases, have often been able to cooperate in order to create small craft companies with attached workshops that were successful.

Modern-day artisans are increasingly finding an audience online, where portals like Etsy allow anyone to advertise and share their handmade work. Niche crafts and art styles can still find an audience in this way, leading to a re-flourishing of artisan production and marketing.

This blog was written as part of the CRAFTED project, which aimed to enrich and promote traditional and contemporary crafts.