Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.87.4
Object Name
Poster
Title
Private Morals, Public Order
Date
1985
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. Between Future and Past
A set of posters looking at the ideological and economic structures underlying the unequal position of women in society at different junctures in history from feudalism to present. It also shows points at which women have fought to change existing social relations. Large purple, blue, orange and white poster. There are a lot of images showing buildings, children at school, a doctor, an image from a family magazine and a large illustration at the bottom of the poster showing mothers and children. There is an image of three men at the top of the poster; one in atop hat, another in a judges wig, and another in a cloak. There is a speech bubble next to them whcih says "The poor are in desperate need for the moral guidance I shall give..." The text on the poster reads "Private morals, public order: The beginnings of the Modern State. The conditions that the working class worked and lived in were so bad that ill-health and early death were common. People began to rebel against these so as
to maintain order and produce a healthier and more skilled work-force, private philanthropists (charity workers) and the Victorian state began to intervene. Central to this intervention was the creation of the modern family, using the existing middle class family as the model. They used a combination of moral, legal, medical and educational methods and reforms. One of the most important concerns was the crusade against infant mortality and measures were introduced which aimed to ensure the health upbringing of children. The wife and the mother became the central focus for these policies. In this way, the state began to regulate the way that women performed unpaid work in the private world of the family in order to service and maintain the paid workforce." The bottom right of the poster has white text which says "many women working in industry at this time were struggling to improve their conditions of work and trying to organise themselves through trade unions. But the ideas of the
men-dominaed unions with their call for a 'family wage' basedon a particular idea of family life and the sexual division of labour within it, assisted the aims of the state rather than 'women workers.' Henry Broadhurst, addressing the TUC in 1875 claimed that the main aim of the trade union should be to: 'Bring about a condition where wives and daughters would be in their proper sphere at home instead of being dragged into competition for their livelehood (sic) against the great and strong men of the world.'
