Needlework and Women

Women are the ones who tend to do needlework in society. I have never seen any man pick up a counted cross stitch. Please show me one if you have a picture. Let's look at why and take a trip back in time. 

Courtesy of Fabric Alchemist

Let's step back, back to the time when women ran the house and men went off to war or worked. In the movie Brave, we see Merida rip through a tapestry (months of work) in seconds. Her mother is horrified, then livid. Take another look at the tapestry and think of how much work went into it. In that period of time (14th century Scotland-ish) you couldn't just get a pre-mapped kit and buy the thread. No, sir! You had to make the thread yourself, design it all yourself, and sit for hours doing this. Only women would have the time to do this because men were busy doing other things. War, fighting bears, and many other activities were a bit more important than decorating the castle with tapestries. Yet, when we see castles we admire the tapestries. This is what the queen was making and it was a picture of her family. Only she would have the extra time to do this type of art. This is where we dive into further historical context as to why Herrshners sells more sewing to women than men. 

Women's Education

Gender roles have prevailed in the art of needlework, which involves crafts like embroidery, knitting, and crochet. Men are not targeted with ads for this art. Why? Years of teaching women sewing and domestic arts and teaching men to find work and pay the bills. Look at Joann's and tell me how many men you find in the needlework section or the entire store. Count them. I'll wait. The point is that it isn't common among men to be taught to sew. Unless you are a cosplayer or have broken the mold you are likely not a man who can sew. My husband is an obvious exception and loves to sew. You don't see it every day, but it can happen and I love it. 

Courtesy of Pinterest
A Sewing Sampler

Women have been educated in domestic arts throughout time. While life has changed, it somewhat hasn't. Herrshners can probably tell you that women are the ones ordering or men are buying for women. Domestic arts include sewing, housekeeping, and cooking. Women, as most of us know, have been confined to domestic spheres for many time periods. This is no longer true, yet most crafting stores appeal primarily to women, which is infinitely fascinating. Men, on the other hand, are targeted by hardware stores (most of which learn to appeal to women in the plant section). Gender roles don't just go away after years of use.

Being schooled in household arts meant that women were often excluded from public sphere topics. Cooking and caring for a home was par for the course when you weren't supposed to be in the workforce doing hard labor. Women were stuck in the domestic sphere, with the notable exception of wartime. Even then they had a house to run. Women who had less money sewed to keep their clothes together and richer women sewed for fun (embroidery or "ornamentals"). All classes sewed, but for different reasons. In some schools, men learned to sew (in co-ed situations) along with women. Sewing was considered good labor for women and was needed to maintain clothing and make a living as a seamstress (if you needed to). It was practical at that time to know how to sew (and it still is, frankly). The samplers you see young girls doing are practice for basic stitches. If you need an example, watch Little Women (2019) and pause when the camera focuses on Beth's needlework on her wall. 

Courtesy of Pinterest -
Women at Howard University

The arts are attributed to women for many reasons, one being that the education system split how boys were raised and girls were raised in two. The arts were sent in the female direction because it made them into more marriage material. Post-revolutionary parents liked that and dance was also added. This is why dance in some forms is considered more feminine. Women, in this way, also became hostesses and found some voice in political times over tea parties and salons. Some were educated at home, like the March family. Needlework boomed in women's education and decorative needlework was approved by parents. There were whole schools devoted to it, catered to women specifically. When Amy in Little Women says she'll be an ornament to society, she is referring to the "ornamental" arts that made women marriage material. (This also included painting, but that is rather co-ed by now.) As education was reformed these were not taught as much, but we still associate those arts, like dance and embroidery, with women. In fact, most arts -visual and performance- were taught to women during their schooling if they were at a girls' school. The level of schooling depended on income, however. Later on, women were hired into textile industries that used sewing machines because of all the education on sewing they received. 

Across Classes 

The elite, like in Bridgerton, did it to pass time. The lower class used it for either income or to maintain their clothing for the longest possible use. They may even make their own. The incredible thing about sewing is that most women of both classes knew how to do it. Whether it was for practical or time-passing reasons, women passed it on to other women for generations. At this moment, I can tell you with confidence that women and serious cosplayers do the most sewing in the world. My man made me a purse and will be making me another purse sometime soon. He can use a sewing machine better than I can, and I am happy to let him do that. 

Another angle to the arts being taught to primarily women is that women were taught to express emotion. What does this have to do with ornamental art? Lots, because men were taught primarily logic, which means they were taught less expression of emotion. The two balance each other out, like puzzle pieces clicking together. The gender box that each sex was put into survives to this day. This greatly explains why Joann's workers and clients are mostly women (and only a few men). Once the expectation was set that women did the sewing and artistic touches, our society ran with it. Crafts are taught to children and women, for the most part, even today. 

Courtesy of The Baltimore Sun

Is this good or bad?

Gender biases are breaking as life continues on, as most who pay any attention to our world will notice. The fact that sewing is considered the realm of women is not bad or good, but instead neutral. It can easily shift if men start swarming craft stores for kicks. It'd be the same as women spending more time in hardware stores. As our society continually shifts the roles of men and women change. It just is. It may not be in the future, but currently more women do sewing arts than men, minus a few cosplayers here and there.

I provided more sources on sewing and women below that I may not have used. Peruse the sources at your leisure, if you like. 

Women and the Needle – Part 1: Ladies' work - Naomi Clifford

Exhibition Notes: Needlework and the Education of Girls - Florence Griswold Museum

Powerful Women in Needlework (relicsinsitu.com)

Opinion | The Feminist Power of Embroidery - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Great Women in Sewing: A List of Incredible Seamstresses | Whipstitch (whip-stitch.com)

Sewing History - Sew Retro (sewretrothebook.com)

Women and Labor in Early America (thoughtco.com)