Women in Crafts
ID: A woman wearing a knitted pink “pussyhat” at a rally. Credit: elyssa renae on Unsplash
As March wanes into April, and Women’s History month draws to a close, let’s reflect on the power of women* in the arts.
According to The Celluloid Ceiling Report, women accounted for 27% of producers, 22% of executive producers, 20% of editors, 20% of writers, 16% of directors, and 12% of cinematographers working on the top 250 films of 2024.
While we are thrilled to see many women working in the Intimacy Coordination field, this spread across many pivotal and influential roles is just a part of a long history of art from women being historically undervalued.
Fine art and creativity have often historically been seen as the purview of men, with the art that women often completed as a part of their “domestic duties,” such as sewing and needlework, considered frivolous crafts and hobbies. But many revolutions and movements have started in these craft circles, as they often allowed women to meet and discuss their views and learn in unregulated and unsupervised settings.
In the 1820s members of the Female Society for Birmingham created hand-sewn bags filled with anti-slavery literature that were then sold across Britain. Two hundred women marched on the New York state capitol in Albany in 1918 to stage a knit-in to protest unjust labor laws.
In 1979 Judy Chicago debuted the mixed media piece The Dinner Party which combined the traditional women’s work of embroidery and china painting into a banquet presentation for 39 mythical and historical famous women. The piece travelled the world and was viewed by an estimated 15 million.
Grassroots movements in craft-based activism, or “craftivism,” have proven effective time and time again, with a recent example being the Pussyhat project, which inspired large swaths of women wearing the bright pink hats at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, DC to protest the recent presidential inauguration of #47 and stand up for women’s rights.
As Sigourney Jacks says in The power of ‘women’s work’: craftivism, “[Those early movements] were a success because their makers subverted the expectations of craft and women’s work. By using a method acceptable for nineteenth-century middle-class women, they were able to gain influence and demand radical political change. Craftivists today continue this tradition by pushing the boundaries of craft, of the handmade.”
Even intimacy professionals have participated in these craft circles. Team PIP, for example, started off with a small group of she’s and they’s in coffee shops and in online catch-ups. We’ve sat together in living rooms to practice cutting and taping modesty wear out of random household items. We’ve met up in small studios to practice tricky positions for the stage and screen. Throughout these gatherings, we’ve pondered, bantered, debated, and discussed issues and ideas important to us over cups of tea and the odd cut-up yoga mat. These interactions created the foundation for what we can offer to others, with the hope of making the field a better place to be in for everyone.
*From Team PIP:
While it is technically the last day of Women’s History Month, we will continue to celebrate women and women’s history throughout the year.
Women’s History is not exclusionary to our non-binary, trans, or gender-fluid friends.
Sources and Further Reading:
Film Statistics from the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film
Arts and Crafts… and Gender by Jessa Glassman for 34th Street
The power of ‘women’s work’: craftivism by Sigourney Jacks
Historical knitting circles are precursors of today’s craftivist movement by Democracy Art
The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago
Photo by elyssa renae on Unsplash. This blog post was written in collaboration with PIP’s Social Media Team, which is comprised of several Launchpad students training to become Intimacy Professionals through our energy exchange initiative.
