The Gendered Garden: Women in the History of Gardens

Is it any wonder that Germaine Greer is an avid gardener? That of all Vita Sackville-West’s fifty books, her gardening columns are the most read and adored? And who hasn’t stared at a Georgia O’Keefe painting of a flower in bloom without instantly picturing the intricacies of the female body? Like these powerful women, many of us understand that a garden is both a real place and a state of mind. A living work of art. Gardens sustain us, offer us solace and pleasure, and often lead us to turn inward, to a state of contemplation. As with any activity that bears so much intensity, gardening is also fascinating as a metaphorical expression of the societies in which they were created. Think of, for instance, 19 th century images that make clear the female domain—women’s gardens close to the home—and the male world of the far-reaching field. In this image-centered presentation, we’ll look at the aesthetic, cultural, class, political and gender implications of the garden. How, as environments, the cultivated landscape has shaped historical views of women and femininity. And, finally, gardens as social arenas, in which we can view evolving late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century leisure and occupational roles for women.

Presenter Profile: Judith Musick, Associate Director, CSWS

Judith Musick - Associate Director, CSWS, and Director, Wired Humanities Project

An avid gardener and former nursery owner, Judith Musick grew up in the bay area of northern California. Before completing her doctorate in sociology at the University of California, San Francisco, she studied and taught high school American history. She has served as Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society for the past eight years. Musick also directs the Feminist Humanities Project (FHP), where she and her colleagues are creating a virtual collection of primary resources related to women and gender in history, and the Wired Humanities Project (WHP), whose main purpose is to encourage, assist, and train faculty to develop and use digital resources for teaching and research. She lives in Eugene where she spends most weekends and vacations trying to keep up with her enthusiastically vigorous perennial gardens.