Have most women today got it all?
As I glanced at my mother hand-washing garments in the hundred year old concrete laundry tubs under our Woolloongabba worker’s cottage, my mind drifted to a painting that never fails to draw my attention when I visit the Queensland Art Gallery. Monday Morning was executed by Vida Lahey in 1912, and shows two women in Edwardian dress working over identical tubs. However, this was not a Monday morning, as my mother rushed through her chores; this was a Sunday afternoon, and was a typical day off for her as she struggled to find a work-life balance.
While advances in technology have simplified many household chores, contemporary Australian society presents women with social, emotional and economic opportunities and pressures in a more complicated way than was experienced by those a century ago. Women today are involved in the workplace more than they have ever been during the history of this nation, yet are still delegated the majority of household chores (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). Monday Morning gives us a rare insight into the kind of real labour undertaken by women in the early 1900s, as ‘women’s lives were generally depicted in a more genteel fashion’ (QAGOMA, 2014). The realistic depictions of gently running water into the tubs and the rising cloud of steam from the boiled garments that are being hauled from the copper, portray this typical household scene. The viewer empathises with the women as they imagine undertaking this rigorous chore in the building heat and humidity of a Brisbane summer morning, dressed in layers of petticoats and long sleeves. The play of light streaming through the open window assists in creating this raw and atmospheric portrayal of women... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Vida Lahey, Monday morning, 1912. Oil on canvas, 153 x 122.7cm. Gift of Madame Emily Coungeau through the Queensland Art Society 1912. Collection Queensland Art Gallery.
