‘Honest and Fair’ or ‘Passive and Shallow’: Representations of Victorian Women in Contemporary Museum Displays in the Yorkshire and Humber Region

This thesis uniquely investigates representations of Victorian women in contemporary museum displays within the Yorkshire and Humber region. It uses museum and heritage studies, feminist and gender studies, and Victorian studies as overarching disciplines and frameworks. Through the application of gender and feminist discourses and analysis to museums since the 1980s, previous studies have revealed that women in museum displays, when present at all, tend to be under- and mis-represented women. This project investigates how twenty-first-century museum displays represent Victorian women by analysing displays, exhibitions and galleries at case study museum sites and interviewing museum professionals. This two-pronged approach not only examines representations of Victorian women in contemporary museum displays, but brings to light curatorial decisions and issues about representing Victorian women in museum displays and collections. This project establishes whether the representations of Victorian women in museum displays are ‘honest and fair’ or ‘shallow and passive’ and recommends practical strategies, methods and ways in which Victorian women can be represented in a more ‘honest and fair’ way.