Curator Grace Aneiza Ali was struck when she first came across the definition of women’s work in the Oxford Dictionary: “work traditionally and historically undertaken by women, especially tasks of a domestic nature such as cooking, needlework and child rearing.”
While the dictionary, first written by lexicographer James A. H. Murray in 1879, has been updated quarterly for nearly the past two decades, the definition of “women’s work” remains.
“My jaw dropped when I saw ‘women’s work’ still being this antiquated definition,” Ali said, “in what one would argue is one of the primary dictionaries in the world.”
It wasn’t because she devalued or dismissed this type of work that she was bothered—it was that the definition was so limiting. Her outrage begs the question: Who gets to define, and what happens when those being defined don’t have a say?
As a curator, founder of the art activism publication OF NOTE Magazine and Assistant Professor of Art & Public Policy at New York University, Ali turned to what she knew best to explore how this term could be reimagined for contemporary times. On display at Pen + Brush in New York City, the exhibition Women’s Work: Art & Activism in the 21st Century features the work of five women artist-activists—Sama Alshaibi, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Suchitra Mattai, Miora Rajaonary, and Ming Smith—whose roots span the globe. Each engage the current political moment via their artmaking.
Ms. spoke with Ali about the importance of art and language in shaping how we think—and why “women’s work” should be expanded to include acts of resistance.
