In her 1965 letter, Eva Hesse admits that it is difficult for women to be taken seriously as artists, because the woman is sidetracted by her feminine roles which prevent her from being totally dedicated to her work. It leaves open an interesting paradox. Either the woman rejects those feminine roles imposed on her and becomes essentially a "man," or she remains the house-wife who will never be truly taken seriously.
A lot of the problem has to do with the way girls are raised, and I still believe it is a problem today. Girls are raised in a way that teaches them to have low self-esteem. Instead of learning the "team player" mentality, they instead learn to attack each other in a vain struggle for a social hierarchy that only exists among women. So in keeping to the female role, even if you are alpha female, all that means is you get your pick of a good mate, to whom you will remain secondary to for the rest of your life. This, of course, does not apply to all women, neither today nor 35 years ago. There are women who are self-supporting and who are dominant in their relationships with men, but they also have to struggle to achieve this.
Hesse says in her letter that women are at a disadvantage from the start, that they lack conviction that they have the "right" to achievement. In a way she is right. However, it doesn't have to be that way. Gender roles are not biological, they are simply psychological "templates" that we are brainwashed into as children.
An interesting experiment for thought would be to raise a male child in the "feminine role" and a female child in the "masculine role." Let's say these individuals were home-schooled until young adulthood and then placed back into society. Which child would be better adapted and more likely to succeed? Which is superior, male or female?
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Hesse's choice of material and organic form directly opposed the angular aesthetics of the work of Judd. While she grappled with her role in society and its impact on her work and professional development, she infused her work with the "masculine" materials of the industrial workplace and the "feminine" material of organic shape. Her obsession in these writings with the limitations she feels as a woman and the arbitrary nature of the limitations reflects the despair of a generation. Her action, to make art in spite of her despair, is our inheritance.
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