Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- About the Authors
- List of Plates
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Genre
- Chapter 2 The Emblem within the Emblem
- Chapter 3 Depicting the Worker
- Chapter 4 James Sharples and His Legacy
- Chapter 5 The Development of the Architecture of the Emblem
- Chapter 6 Arthur John Waudby and the Symbols of Freemasonry
- Chapter 7 Men, Myths and Machines
- Chapter 8 The Classical Woman
- Chapter 9 Walter Crane
- Chapter 10 The Art of Copying
- Conclusion Reprise and Review
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 8 - The Classical Woman
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- About the Authors
- List of Plates
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Genre
- Chapter 2 The Emblem within the Emblem
- Chapter 3 Depicting the Worker
- Chapter 4 James Sharples and His Legacy
- Chapter 5 The Development of the Architecture of the Emblem
- Chapter 6 Arthur John Waudby and the Symbols of Freemasonry
- Chapter 7 Men, Myths and Machines
- Chapter 8 The Classical Woman
- Chapter 9 Walter Crane
- Chapter 10 The Art of Copying
- Conclusion Reprise and Review
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the preceding chapter it was noted that the classical woman was an enduring feature of many trade union emblems. In trades dominated by the male worker, women appear on their emblems in the guise of young, slim, beautiful personifications and embodiments of virtues. This chapter explores the representation of women in union emblems, and in particular the role of the classical woman. Who is she, what is she and why is she there?
Many of the trade union emblems of the Victorian and Edwardian eras are populated with earnest, respectable, worthy tradesmen, the skilled and the unskilled, together with portraits of the heads of unions, officials and lodges. Yet, although women represented a large proportion of the workforce (a vast body of working women were employed as domestic servants without union representation), the working woman is far less frequently represented. Children, who also formed a large section of the workforce, usually appear merely as putti. Widows are represented fairly frequently, because they are the respectable wives of union men, not working women. Following the death of Prince Albert, when Queen Victoria became ‘The Widow of Windsor’, images of widows became patriotic.
Before the industrial revolution, records show that women earned less as day labourers than men for performing the same work. Women were considered to be inferior to men and their labour was therefore judged to be less valuable.
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- The Art and Ideology of the Trade Union Emblem, 1850-1925 , pp. 119 - 138Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2013