Rozsika Parker was born in London, but brought up near Oxford. Between 1966-1969 she studied European art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. In 1972 she joined the feminist magazine Spare Rib and continued to work for the magazine until 1980. In 1973 she met Griselda Pollock and together they founded 'The Feminist Art History Collective'. Its aim was to re-address the structural sexism that existed (and still exists) in the art world.
With respect to decorative needlework, she is particularly known for her book and accompanying exhibition, The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine (1984; London: The Women’s Press Ltd). This was regarded as the presentation of a radical history that emphasised that both men and women were involved in European embroidery, rather than it just being ‘women’s work’ (“mindless, decorative and delicate”) and that displayed this form of needlework on a very different level.
Digital source (retrieved 31st March 2016).
Digital source of illustration (retrieved 1st July 2016).
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