Shake Hands: A Challenge and a Statement on the Woman’s Role in American Society

Authors

• Brynne Petty

Keywords

women in American art, gender roles, domestic labor

Abstract

Nineteenth-century America was a time ripe with change. New inventions were created every day; many felt the call of Manifest Destiny and pushed for Westward Expansion; and the country endured a brutal civil war, all while enduring the growing pains of a young nation. Every decade delivered more opportunities for artists to create paintings that told of epic battles and the courage of men as they faced the wild frontier. Yet, somewhere in the midst of all this, the American ideal shifted. Many artists turned their efforts toward creating genre paintings that depicted the everyday lives of the middle and lower classes. These homey, picturesque scenes captured the life of Americans and their “true” identity. As the century wore on and genre paintings became more popular, artists became bolder in their artwork and turned their efforts toward making commentaries on slavery, relations with Native Americans, women, etc.1 One such artist was Lilly Martin Spencer. Staking her claim in the art world as a woman, her boisterous paintings challenged the stereotypes placed on women while simultaneously empowering women and embracing the feminine role. Her painting Shake Hands? created a fragile bridge between these two seemingly opposed concepts.

Recommended Citation

Petty, Brynne (2026) "Shake Hands: A Challenge and a Statement on the Woman’s Role in American Society," AWE (A Woman’s Experience): Vol. 12, Article 12.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/awe/vol12/iss1/12