ABSTRACT
From the first days of printmaking, following the development of the woodcut in the 15 th century, women have been involved in the print trade as members of printmaking families. It is easily forgotten that in the past printmaking had a primary function in transmitting information, whether religious, technical, commercial, artistic or scientific, and that much printmaking was only secondarily an artistic activity in its own right. Nuns in the Low Countries who were involved in the cutting and printing of religious woodcuts in the 15 th century would not have considered themselves to be artists. Women were crucial to certain aspects of the print trade; for example, the colouring of prints was often done by women and their children, and women often ran shops or stalls selling prints. Many women continued their husbands’ workshops as widows, employing journeymen to carry out tasks that were beyond their abilities or strengths. There were many strenuous activities connected with printmaking, especially plate printing; thus there were physical barriers against the entry of women into printmaking in addition to the cultural obstacles that prevented them from making independent careers; these did not begin to be surmounted until the end of the 19th century.
