Our society seems to be focused on the reproductive attributes of a woman’s body rather than her accomplishments as a person.  I have read that it is easier to change the views of an entire society rather than those of an individual.  People follow the general consensus of the group.  My personal upbringing supports that premise.  My mother, a product of 1940’s and 1950 thinking, shared the prevailing view that women were mere chattels in their relationships.  It was a man’s house and a man’s children and the female was to nurture and bear children.   Women accepted this role and tried to marry well to increase their status.  The first feminist movement started in reaction to this culture. This movement was more aggressive in nature.   The later movements have been more successful in garnering society’s approval and are less aggressive and more intellectual in nature.   Art and artists, through the feminist movement, have been fighting to change society’s view and women’s status.  Throughout history, there have been very few female artists that are recognized in the Art World. Artists until about 1940’s were primarily men.  Even today female artists are still fighting for recognition in the Art World.

Judy Chicago’s ‘The Dinner Party’ has inspired me.   The reaction to this art in the 70’s represents the resistance to change society’s’ view of the female role.   It both honors women’s accomplishments and at the same time reduces these women to their female parts and female duties.  This work is a milestone in the feminist movement.