Difficult Subjects: Working Women and Visual Culture, Britain, 1880-1914 (British Art and Visual Culture Since 1750, New Readings)

During the period 1880-1914 there was much discussion and unease about the rising number and more visible presence of women in the workforce. This book looks at the representation of working women and how that imagery was used to negotiate contradictions between the ideals associated with femininity and those allied to the notion of work. In the course of this study, the book participates in broader debates about the relationship between art and identity, and the potential of visual images to affect human relations.