It was difficult for women to access certain artistic professions both in Europe and in the Arab and Ottoman world. In the late 19th century, women slowly began to come into their own in the world of painters, sculptors and writers.

This Armenian girl from Bursa (Turkey) was painted by the British painter John Frederick Lewis. The European public often became “acquainted” with the lives of Middle Eastern women through such works, filtering reality through the eye and tastes of the artists.

In the 19th century UK, women’s work was often an economic necessity, but could also promise autonomy, financial independence and self-realisation. Governesses were among those often able to improve their lot, a fact echoed in European literature, perhaps most famously in a masterpiece of English literature, Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre (1847).

Artist travellers to the Orient brought back numerous sketches of peoples’ lives, often to be transformed later into impressive paintings. Works like this one tried to give an account of costumes, scenes of life and women’s work as seen through the European artists’ gaze. Such depictions were not always sympathetic or indeed accurate.

Artist travellers to the Orient brought back numerous sketches of peoples’ lives, often to be transformed later into impressive paintings. Works like this one tried to give an account of costumes, scenes of life and women’s work as seen through the European artists’ gaze. Such depictions were not always sympathetic or indeed accurate.

The French government hesitated over ruling on education for young Muslim girls, which was a delicate subject. Consequently, the first related initiative was a private one, and the teaching provided was essentially professional in nature.

Western travellers in the Arab and Ottoman world often sought out scenes of daily life involving women. The way Europeans imagined the position of women in Arab and Ottoman society, deduced not least from the way they dressed, was fed by often fanciful, romanticised and inaccurate accounts from travellers or the photographs they brought back.

In Europe, women’s access to political life ignited impassioned debates throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. The right to vote was one of the major battles in the fight for male/female equality.

In the 19th century the debate about women’s role in society and their education developed in both Europe and the Arab and Ottoman world. This portrait of a founder of Zahrat al-Ihsan School, Beirut, reminds us of the increasingly public role prominent women throughout the Middle East played from the 19th century onwards. The charitable school provided education for disadvantaged girls.

In the 19th century the debate about women’s role in society and their education developed in both Europe and the Arab and Ottoman world. This portrait of a founder of Zahral al-Ihsan School, Beirut, reminds us of the increasingly public role prominent women throughout the Middle East played from the 19th century onwards. The charitable school provided education for disadvantaged girls.

Western travellers in the Arab and Ottoman world often sought out scenes of daily life involving women. The way Europeans imagined the position of women in Arab and Ottoman society, deduced not least from the way they dressed, was fed by often fanciful, romanticised and inaccurate accounts from travellers or the photographs they brought back.

Western travellers in the Arab and Ottoman world often sought out scenes of daily life involving women. The way Europeans imagined the position of women in Arab and Ottoman society, deduced not least from the way they dressed, was fed by often fanciful, romanticised and inaccurate accounts from travellers or the photographs they brought back.

Western travellers in the Arab and Ottoman world often sought out scenes of daily life involving women. The way Europeans imagined the position of women in Arab and Ottoman society, deduced not least from the way they dressed, was fed by often fanciful, romanticised and inaccurate accounts from travellers or the photographs they brought back.

Western travellers in the Arab and Ottoman world often sought out scenes of daily life involving women. The way Europeans imagined the position of women in Arab and Ottoman society, deduced not least from the way they dressed, was fed by often fanciful, romanticised and inaccurate accounts from travellers or the photographs they brought back.

The right of European women to access the same literature as men in the 19th century was difficult to achieve. Reading was considered to be dangerous in some cases.

In Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, women gradually began to emerge from the domestic environment to obtain the same social rights as men.

Women were also demanding access to the same leisure and sports activities as men in 19th century Europe. Women quickly began using bicycles, first as a leisure activity for the wealthier classes, then as a means of transport for more modest people.

Access to modern education was essential for women in the Arab and Ottoman world at the beginning of the 20th century. In countries such as Tunisia the struggle for independence enabled women to participate in political rallies from which they had previously been excluded.