Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.30
Object Name
Poster
Title
Women hold up half the sky
Date
1972-1982
Description
The Poster Collective was a collective formed in 1971 at the Slade School of Art,  a group formed to initially produce posters in response to the miners strike and on the wars in both Vietnam and Ireland. It was formed on the basis of developing a coherent visual style, which addressed the political issues of the time. This included the armed struggles against colonialism in Africa, the struggle of women for equal rights and the continuing struggle against racism. The collective was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This is a yellow and black and white poster. It is printed with many scenes of women in China being at work. In the bottom right corner of the poster it says Mao Zedong said in 1955 that in order to build a great socialist society, it is of the utmost importance to arouse the broad masses of women
to join in productive activity. Men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in production. Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist trandformation of society as a whole.
