MIRIAM SCHAPIRO: When I finally began to be part of the women's movement, it was the first time in my life when I saw what it meant to be connected to other people, and as time went on, I realized how much I had to give.
Women were supposed to be in a certain way. I used to call it the period of white gloves because if you didn't go out with your husband to the restaurant and you didn't wear your white gloves, then people who would look at you because you were out of line. There were rules, and the rules are not the women's rules at all. They were the men's rules. There was no such thing as a specific art by women.
The story of “Womanhouse” is about Judy Chicago and myself beginning an art course for women. To make women understand that in order to be artists, they had to find their identity, as well as working hard to learn how to create images that came from their belief system. I mean, they didn't even know what a belief system was. I mean, there was so much to teach, you know. Ultimately, they were creating their own autobiographies.
This young woman brought a box that she made. In the box she had—it was very delicate and very moving—it was her first bra, and the bra moved down like this, and the box was made nicely, and suddenly I thought about all the art that people studied in schools and who in God's name ever brought that to school, you know, as what they thought was important? But it was important. It was so important because it was the beginning of whatever her identity would be.
I always had a thought of a woman like myself who's standing in the kitchen. She's washing all the dishes, and what's she thinking about then? What would it be like to have a story to tell? What it'd be like if you had a certain kind of dress on? What would it be like to move your body around?
I was myself dealing with my identity. I was innocent at that time in my life. I was older, but I was still innocent. It's now, in 2006, those of us who are feminist women are well-known for a paintings that tell the stories of women's lives, and you see how simple it was.
