Empowering Tribute: New Exhibition at New York Historical Society Celebrates Women’s Labor Across History

The name of the New York Historical Society’s new exhibition “Women’s Work” almost serves as rebuttal to the historically derogatory use of the phrase, which has often described a subordinate class of labor assigned to a subordinate gender.

“The U.S. census of the early twentieth century often rendered women’s labor invisible,” writes Jessica Wilkerson, an associate professor of history at West Virginia University. “It didn’t matter how much her labor propped up the family farm or that it sustained a family. Women were listed as dependents of men, and men were identified by their type of employment.”

The exhibition — which debuted last week and will run until August 2024 — consists of 45 objects that demonstrate the evolution of how “women’s work” has been defined throughout the centuries. These objects include everything from a clothing wringer to a condom tin to a medical kit. Through these objects, the exhibit thoughtfully explores various forms of labor — like sex work, farming, nursing, and teaching — that women partook in. The curation as a whole displays the progression of women’s work to the modern period.

“While this exhibition shows the enormous strides that our society has made towards greater equality, it also brings up issues that continue to be felt today. This is an important exhibition both for what it says about our history and our present,” said Valerie Paley, founding director of the Center for Women’s History and Sue Ann Weinberg Director of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, in a press release.

The exhibit was curated by the NYHS’s Center for Women’s History, which was the first of its kind to open in an American museum back in 2017. Tickets to see the exhibition can be purchased through the NYHS website.