Drie vrouwen spinnen zijdedraad before 1900

This small print depicts three women spinning silk thread. The image, by an anonymous artist, opens a window onto the Meiji period in Japan, a time of rapid modernization and cultural shifts. Here, labor and gender are intertwined. In the rigid social hierarchy of Meiji Japan, women were often relegated to domestic and agricultural work. This piece provides insight into their economic roles, revealing how women's labor was essential to the silk industry, a major economic driver at the time. The photograph aestheticizes their work. Are the women empowered by their craft, or confined by societal expectations? This image offers us a rare glimpse into the lives of working women in a period of great transformation, inviting us to reflect on the complex interplay between tradition, modernity, gender, and labor.