Dressing for Work

Exhibition Opening and Reception

Women's fashionable dress changed dramatically in the period between the Civil War and World War II, embodying the expansion of their job options and roles in society.  In the 1860s, voluminous hoop skirts hid women's legs, while tightly fitted corsets and bodices sent some of the fair sex to the fainting couch.  By the 1930s, pants and blouses were common and acceptable for women's casual wear; skirts came to the knee, and the far more comfortable brassiere replaced the corset.  Women became as unfettered in their dress as they were in society.  Among the carefully selected images and costumes that illustrate this point are Mary Cassatt's color lithograph, The Fitting, and a black chiffon evening dress, with beaded snake. 

The book, What Can a Woman Do?, written by Mrs. M. L. Rayne in 1893, is the jumping off point of the exhibition, and it serves as a literary manifestation of the "New Woman" of the late 19th century.  By 1870, 14.7 percent of the female population over 16 years were breadwinners, and by 1900 the percentage had risen to 20.6 percent.  These self–confident women dared to participate in sports, to ride bicycles, to support themselves with a job, to go unescorted to parties, parks, museums, and the theater—even, to live willingly without a husband.  Referred to in period literature uncharitably as an "excess of women" or as a "surplus of women," widows and spinsters often were forced to work at low–paying, mind–numbingly repetitive, and health–threatening jobs in factories and sweatshops.  Domestic servants and shopgirls fared little better.

The book What Can a Woman Do? describes a variety of work and career options available to women at the time, providing encouragement by profiling successful women in careers such as medicine, law, agriculture, manufacturing, business, dressmaking, education and the arts.  By advising her readers on how to apply for a job and how to dress, Mrs. Rayne offers the tools necessary for young women to strike out on their own.  The paths they forged opened up opportunities for other women, leading to a broadening of career options and increasing acceptance of women in the workplace.  The social roles and attitudes of  women were radically redefined as they began to enter professions previously reserved for men, and to have access to a college education and greater personal freedoms.

This exhibition will pair paintings and graphic works with period costumes to illustrate selected career paths that Mrs. Rayne promoted in What Can a Woman Do?, showing women in business, the arts, agriculture, manufacturing, education, domestic service, dressmaking and millinery, along with traditional roles.  Guest curator for the exhibition is Lynne Zacek Bassett (class of 1983), an independent scholar specializing in historic costume and textiles.

Admission to this exhibition and other exhibitions is free; donations are welcome. The Museum is open Tuesday–Friday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sat./Sun., 1–5 p.m., and is fully accessible.  Parking is available nearby.

The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in South Hadley is a leading collegiate art museum. Its comprehensive permanent collection of 15,000 objects features Asian art, 19th– and 20th–century European and American paintings and sculpture, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art, Medieval sculpture, early Italian Renaissance paintings, and an extensive collection of works on paper.  For more information, visit the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Web site or call 413-538-2245.

Images are available upon request.

Day Dress, Circa 1885, Collection of the Mount Holyoke College Theatre Department

Special Events

Thursday, 12 February, 5:00 pm, Gamble Auditorium, Mount Holyoke College Art Museu

Panel discussion "Dressing for Work"

• Lynne Bassett, Independent Scholar and Museum Consultant
• Mary Renda, Associate Professor of History & Gender Studies, MHC
• Patricia Campbell Warner, Professor Emerita History of Dress, UMass
• Moderated by Museum director Marianne Doezema

Thursday, 26 February, 5:00 pm, Gamble Auditorium, Mount Holyoke College Art Museu

Lecture by Michael Lasser, Independent Scholar titled "How Do You Do It, Mabel? On $20 a Week: Women, Work, Wardrobe–And Popular Songs"