Transforming the Public Sphere (Paperback)

Maria Grever

ISBN 10: 0822332965 / ISBN 13: 9780822332961

Published by Duke University Press, North Carolina, 2004

About this Item

Paperback. In 1898, the year Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was crowned, five hundred women organized an enormous public exhibition showcasing women's contributions to Dutch society as workers in a strikingly broad array of professions. The National Exhibition of Women's Labor, located in The Hague, was attended by more than ninety thousand visitors. Maria Grever and Berteke Waaldijk consider the exhibition in the international contexts of women's history, visual culture, and imperialism. Transforming the Public Sphere provides a comprehensive social history based on extensive research. The authors describe the role of exhibitions in late-nineteenth-century public culture, the planning and construction of the 1898 women's exhibition, and the event itself--the sights, sounds, and smells. They discuss how the exhibition displayed the range and variety of women's economic, intellectual, and artistic roles in Dutch culture, including their participation in such traditionally male professions as engineering, diamond-cutting, and printing and publishing.They examine how people and goods from the Dutch colonies were represented, most notably in an extensive open-air replica of a "Javanese village." Grever and Waaldijk reveal the tensions the exhibition highlighted: between women of different economic classes, between the goal of equal rights for women and the display of imperial subjects and spoils, and between socialists and feminists, who competed fiercely with one another for working women's support. Transforming the Public Sphere explores an event that served as the dress rehearsal for advances in women's public participation during the twentieth century. First complete study of the1898 Dutch National Exhibition of Women's Labor, its international relevance, and how the Exhibition's representations of the colonies, gender, class, and ethnicity influenced political culture in the Netherlands Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780822332961

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Transforming the Public Sphere (Paperback)
• Publisher: Duke University Press, North Carolina
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822332965
• ISBN 13: 9780822332961
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In 1898, the year Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was inaugurated, five hundred women organized an enormous public exhibition showcasing women’s contributions to Dutch society as workers in a strikingly broad array of professions. The National Exhibition of Women’s Labor, held in The Hague, was attended by more than ninety thousand visitors. Maria Grever and Berteke Waaldijk consider the exhibition in the international contexts of women’s history, visual culture, and imperialism.

A comprehensive social history, Transforming the Public Sphere describes the planning and construction of the Exhibition of Women’s Labor and the event itself—the sights, the sounds, and the smells—as well as the role of exhibitions in late-nineteenth-century public culture. The authors discuss how the 1898 exhibition displayed the range and variety of women’s economic, intellectual, and artistic roles in Dutch culture, including their participation in such traditionally male professions as engineering, diamond-cutting, and printing and publishing. They examine how people and goods from the Dutch colonies were represented, most notably in an extensive open-air replica of a “Javanese village.” Grever and Waaldijk reveal the tensions the exhibition highlighted: between women of different economic classes; between the goal of equal rights for women and the display of imperial subjects and spoils; and between socialists and feminists, who competed fiercely with one another for working women’s support. Transforming the Public Sphere explores an event that served as the dress rehearsal for advances in women’s public participation during the twentieth century.

About the Author

Maria Grever is Professor of History and Theory at Erasmus University Rotterdam and a participant in the research program of the Nijmegen Center for Women’s Studies, both in the Netherlands.

Berteke Waaldijk is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.