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Several
artists I interviewed mentioned that while their classes were mainly
filled with women, they knew many teachers that were men. One artist
suggested this could be like males who are stereotypically reluctant
to ask for directions; men may prefer to learn the material on their
own rather than take classes. Another suggestion was that perhaps
women fill up their spare time with taking classes, whereas men
have other pursuits.
This latter suggestion
of women learning book arts in their spare time, pulls in the idea
of the book as a craft object. Susan King suggests that many women
are drawn to the book from the same impetus that draws women to
quilts: you can pick them up and put them down, and create them
in stages in your home with a minimum of tools. Like quilts, books
can also be a modest or useful object and incorporate the family
photos or a daily journal. While many women will continue to pursue
to book as a craft object it still raises their awareness and support
of those who choose to seek further study and develop as a book
artist.
Kathy Walkup, with her long academic involvement in a woman's
college, has done considerable thinking about women in book arts.
She suggests there are also some socio-political factors at play.
She believes, and Susan King also echoes this statement, that women's
interest in book art began with the rise of the contemporary women's
movement in the 1970s. As women began to explore more job opportunities,
they discovered they could perform, and even enjoy jobs that required
brain power, physical exertion and working with machinery. Many
women during this time took the opportunity to get involved in printing.
With the women's movement the printing trades also offered the opportunity
to gain a voice both politically and in literature as women began
publishing broadsides, poetry, journals etc. As women became involved
in fine press printing and branching into other areas of book arts,
they became mentors to others and the numbers of women began to
increase.
Walkup also mentioned another
sociological perspective, that women many tend to move into careers
that are being abandoned by men and are considered passe or no longer
lucrative by men. So as traditional letterpress printing technology
was dying, women began to move in and form careers in the medium.
Other professions she used as examples where this has happened are
teaching, library work, and most recently it is occurring in government.
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