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Story: Men and women in the city

Domestic drudgery

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Domestic drudgery

In her 1959 painting ‘Woman at the sink’, Jacqueline Fahey attempted to subvert the cultural norm of women’s unpaid domestic work being less valuable than men’s work in the paid workforce. The painting also conveys the sense of entrapment and isolation some women felt in being confined to the domestic sphere.

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Auckland University Press

by Jacqueline Fahey

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How to cite this page

Caroline Daley, Men and women in the city – Suburban women, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/24603/domestic-drudgery (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Caroline Daley, published 17 December 2009.