Illustration: Ann Macbeth. Embroidered panel, c1906.
Textile design and craft have often been inextricably linked with that of education and particularly that of female education. The movement towards universal education that was so much a part of the social development of the nineteenth century, particularly in North America and Europe, saw textiles enter the classroom. One form of textile craft that took particular root was that of embroidery. Admittedly, it was largely limited to the female school population and many people today see that fact alone as an indictment of extreme discrimination and belligerance of government policy towards women and the role they were to play in society at large. However, there is perhaps a different way of seeing the use that was made of embroidery in schools during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that is perhaps a little more balanced, if still not entirely palatable to our twenty-first century reasoning.
That brings me quite aptly to Ann Macbeth. While writing the ebook Ann Macbeth and the Glasgow Embroidery Style which should be available before the end of the year, I kept thinking about some of the reasoning behind why Macbeth felt so passionately that embroidery was and should be such an important part of a girl's education. Macbeth, although a teacher and head of the embroidery department at the Glasgow School of Art in the early years of the twentieth century, was also involved in the training of state education teaching staff in embroidery. She was also particularly keen to incorporate embroidery learning skills within the school system as early as possible. This was not, in her estimation, to bring up generation after generation of young women who had good domestic skills as accomplished home embroiderers, but had much to do with ideas concerning the empowerment of women.
Illustration: Ann Macbeth. Curtain with applique border, c1910.
This may sound very strange coming from the perspective of the traditions of embroidery, which although not entirely part of the world of women, men were involved in a number of ways in embroidery over the centuries, it is indicative of the traditions of the female craft sphere, as are many of the textile crafts. However, Macbeth saw embroidery as a means of women empowering themselves through at least a modicum of financial independence and security. During her teaching period embroidery was still considered a potentially profitable employment route for women. Although there were a number of difficulties with the intermittence of low wages, middle men and the fickle consumer market, women could potentially earn a living if they were accomplished enough. This seems to have been one of the main reasons that Macbeth was so convinced that girls should start with embroidery at such an early age. She reasoned that even if they chose never to sew another stitch after they left school, they would have had years of experience from their school years on which to fall back if they should hit straightened times. The fact that women were often economically vulnerable was an acute awareness of Macbeth.
One of the most important developments of the twentieth century, at least for much of North America and Europe, was the gradual unravelling of the domination of men in all forms of life. While there is obviously still a long way to go, even though many men in North America and Europe are convinced that everything is now hunky dory, it clearly isn't, one of the most important aspects of female independence has to be financial. Although women such as Macbeth were convinced that gaining the vote for example, was a pressing and focused goal, many in the suffragette movement were concerned that by concentrating on such a focused and contained achievement, men would eventually hand over the vote leaving women with little but that vote. It has to be remembered for example that men would dominate, and in many cases still do, the selection of candidates for election, so women could have the vote but only vote for men, thereby negating many of the issues that women wanted to be on the public agenda. In this respect, the suffragette movement was more than a movement for short term political gain and much more to do with the longer term goal of true independence for women to run their lives within or without relationships with men, as fully independent and secure.
Illustration: Ann Macbeth. Embroidered table mat, c1906.
Macbeth saw this in her own way as the role that embroidery could at least partially play amongst the female population. If a woman, before or after marriage, could produce her own work and earn her own money, then she was an independent figure in the community. If she could then support, through her independence, that community, she would be seen as a vital element, rather than one that was placid, supportive and secondary. One of the important points that Macbeth made concerning the teaching of embroidery within the classroom, was that girls should be encouraged to produce their own pattern work, be capable of understanding colour combinations and tones and be versatile in stitch and composition. In this way women would feel both confident as creative individuals, but also not feel as if they were mere copyists of work supplied by others. In this respect she wanted women to feel as if they could control the entire embroidery process and not just elements. In other words, by encompassing the entire process of the craft, more money could be made, less middle men were needed, and more independence could be accrued for women.
Macbeth realised that this was not necessarily a golden route to fame, fortune and the complete independence of womankind. There were numerous problems that sometimes seemed insurmountable, particularly with a social framework that had been stagnant and entrenched for so long, so that both men and women would have to remove themselves from the framework to even see the framework itself. However, it was the idea of even an element of personal independence that was important to Macbeth and if she could achieve that through the teaching of embroidery through the school system, then it was worth doing, even if only a few women were able to stand alone if they chose to and in that she should be commended
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