Women's Self Portrait: A Looking Glass in a Man’s World

Abstract

In the light of the feminist revolution calling for greater female autonomy, female self-portraiture is gradually being brought out of the shadows. The relationship between the inner worlds of the female artist and her society has been complex. Throughout the centuries, social conventions demanded that women remain within the confines of the private sphere. Therefore, by engaging with the public realm of the art world, women artists had to operate on a stage made for men. She was often subject to the unremitting scrutiny of society, which prepared to pounce on her at any time if they deemed her as breaching their dogmatic codes of "womanly" etiquette and conduct. So, while self-portraiture gave women control over how they wished to be perceived, these self-portraits were often guided by her society's "correct code of conduct" for women. Even after the rise of feminism, the acute awareness of such standards has not subsided, with many artworks focused on challenging these societal conventions. By drawing upon various self-portraits of women artists, this paper explores how the evolution of the self-portraits of women artists is an essential angle in studying the changes in societal attitudes towards women and the formation of their identity.