The idea that a woman stitching is a virtuous act has a long history, for while she is still, silent and submissive, she cannot be challenging or corrupted.27 In the eighteenth century, tenacious women like Mary Wollstonecraft saw the process of embroidering as restrictive. In her Vindication of the Rights of Women, she wrote how it ‘confines their thoughts to their person’, and rejected it in favour of less sedentary activities like gardening, experimental philosophy and literature.28 But there have also been moves to reclaim fabric as a medium for celebrating female contributions to art.
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