What conditions generally have made it possible, or impossible, for women to be writers, artists, composers, etc.? Women artists whose names appear in the footnotes of history books tend to share a particular set of features: they were often very young, white, upper class, attractive, and they possessed pleasant personalities. Discover what circumstances made it possible for women to be artists and what situations made it very difficult for them to thrive.

Lee Ann Elliott Westman is an associate teaching professor in gender studies at Rutgers-Camden. Westman teaches courses that examine the connections between historical events and cultural production. She is particularly interested in the relationship between gender and cultural production. Westman received a BA in humanities from Brigham Young University and an MA and a PhD in humanities from Florida State University.