But the greatest changes were the growing freedoms for women, who protested for their rightful access to art education and won. This was challenging male and female roles, especially among the bourgeoisie, all the more since the most prominent art critic, John Ruskin, had proclaimed: ‘The man’s power is active, progressive, defensive. He is eminently the doer, creator, the discoverer. His intellect is for invention and speculation. But the woman’s intellect is not for invention or creation.’ Such an attitude made it difficult for British women to be taken seriously as professional artists.
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