This week it's aprons. They were rejected by a generation of feminists as symbols of female domesticity and enslavement, and yet they have been and still are essential for many women who work outside the home. Here we have two female welders during the First World War whose aprons which are just as much a symbol of skill, equality and independence. Building Aircraft: Acetylene Welder (1917, National Museum, Cardiff) is a lithograph by CRW Nevinson (1889-1946).