Stitched Herstory

For my Senior Capstone Project, I created an infographic that takes a generational look at how women’s lives have changed since the year my grandmother was born, 1946. The focus of my project is on progress made by women in moving away from traditional gender roles and expectations to stay in the home. It uses the medium of textiles, specifically embroidery, ironically to demonstrate this shift. I see this project as a living document, one that I will continue to add to for years to come.

My Approach

I researched three generations (my grandmother, my mother, and me) to show intersections among lives and to create a broad generational perspective. I focused on historical events mixed with everyday life to show how these two intertwined and affected each other. I wanted to use not only timeline events but also statistics and data over time.

This is a sketch from the project’s early stages. Each circle is an embroidery hoop that shows its own historical event or statistic. The timeline is a cohesive and organic shape, each circle representing its own thing but fitting into a larger narrative. 

The Inclusion of Untold Stories

As my timeline came together, I struggled with the complexity of women’s history. I recognize the history of women is a complicated issue that cannot be summed up in a simple timeline. It is also something that is constantly changing and will continue to evolve. For that reason, I have included an “empty hoop” element in my timeline to represent these untold stories. These will be scattered throughout my timeline. 

Landmark Years

My inspiration for this timeline was the maternal line in my family. I have always loved working with textiles, something that my mom taught me and her mom taught her. For that reason, I based my timeline around the birth years of me, my mom, and my grandma. Each of us made a hoop reflecting our birth years and relations to one another. They are the largest hoops in the timeline and act as spacers among the progress shown.