Een vaderland voor vrouwen / A fatherland for women. The 1898 Nationale Tentoonstelling van Vrouwenarbeid in retrospect. Eds. Maria Grever and Fia Dieteren (Dutch and English articles) (original) (raw)

How did women determine their attitude towards the transforming nation-state at the end of the 19th century? What stylistic strategies did they use and what were the consequences for the political power relations between the sexes? These questions form the guiding principle for the book "A Fatherland for Women". In this richly illustrated - partly English - collection, the National Exhibition of Women's Labor in 1898 is the starting point. The first part discusses the history of the (inter)national industrial exhibitions and makes clear how important contacts between women from different countries were in the design of women's exhibitions. Despite national differences, certain similarities between these manifestations are striking. The articles in the other three parts deal with themes that received a lot of attention at the Hague Women’s Exhibition: social care and labor; colonial relationships; secondary and higher education. A special photo section shows replicas of the postcards produced during the 1898 Exhibition, showing the exhibition building, the display of objects, working-class at work during the exhibition, the colonial display of a Javanese village and a photo of the Surinamese woman Lousie Yda.