I only realised how under-represented women remained in early Malta photography when I went through my accumulations to select illustrations for these features. In album after bulging album, I found hardy any images of women at work (a working woman was not a mara tax-xogħol). With perseverance, I eked out enough photos for what, I trust, has turned into an enlightening project.

An early unidentified female university graduate, 1920s.

Probably high school students, 1930s. Photo by the Grand Studio.

Group photo of WRENS in Malta in the 1930s. Photo by the Grand Studio

At a time when society assigned sharply distinct roles to men and women, not surprisingly women mostly figure in traditionally feminine ‘domestic’ functions, like parenting, nursing, spinning and weaving, lace-making, tailoring, cooking, washing and ironing.

Vendors of agricultural produce, all wearing the għonnella, 1920s.

Carrying a large sack of agricultural produce, 1920s.

Country women balancing loads on their heads, 1910s.

In agriculture, the heavier tasks, like ploughing, reaping, threshing, watering, transport, fell on men while women appear mostly engaged in marketing agricultural produce. Not to mention construction, metal work, carpentry, whitewashing, husbandry. Never a woman worker in sight.

Working on a loom in Gozo, 1910s.

Nurses of the Mtarfa military hospital in WW1. Group photo in front of Mdina.

Nursing during World War I, Christmas 1916.

The only exception in the building trade were the ballata, those women who laid and battened waterproof roofing made of powdered terracotta (pozzolana). I do not have photos of these.

A street greengrocer in the 1910s.

A woman hawking bran, late 1890s. Photo by Horatio Agius

A water-carrier, late 1890s. Photo by Horatio Agius.

One trend, very prominent and consistent in early image-making shows that women did not carry heavy loads in their hands or on their shoulders but precariously balanced on their heads, the African way. These counterpoising feats, so universal up to the war years, now belong to the past.

Country women in the fields,1930. Photo by Geo Furst.

A lace worker, c.1910.

Women mending fishing tackle in Marsaxlokk, 1920s.

Also noticeable, the almost total absence of obesity in mature women, who never left the house with heads uncovered.

Nurses in a children’s hospital, 1940s. Photo by Vela (Alfred Vella Gera)

Relatively few early commercial photographers showed interest in women at work. Horatio Agius from Cottonera (1844-1910), could be an exception. In the late 19th century, he marketed a popular series of Maltese figurines, which included several women displaying their work attributes. Besides him, little else.

Government school teachers in front of Mosta church, 1930s.

I may follow this up with another feature about women in less fatiguing pursuits.