Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.87.7
Object Name
Poster
Title
Women in Struggle
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.
This is the seventh poster in the series and reads "WOMEN IN STRUGGLE" alongside an illustration of a woman being dragged off by two police officers. The background of the poster is green and features a list of countries and the year in which women gained the right to vote in them.
Text at the bottom of the poster reads: "By the beginning of the twentieth century the question of women's emancipation was familiar to broad sections of the population, both through the efforts of individual women activists, and also as a result of working class woman organising in unions. 'Votes for Women' became the major rallying point when, in 1903, the Women's Social and Political Union was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and a group of other women. Following on from years of fruitless constitutional struggle, (the question of woman's suffrage had been raised in Parliament every year since 1867), the WSPU chose to commit itself to other forms of political action. Its tactics included graffiti, smashing of shop windows, and large scale attacks on property through arson and with bombs. Over one thousand women were imprisoned and many had their health broken through hunger strikes and force feeding. Through the Suffragettes' militant campaigns and following women's contribution as
workers during the first world war, women over thirty were finally given the vote in 1917, but it was not until 1928 that the vote for all women over twenty-one was won. The Vote is Not Enough... For some women the question of emancipation went beyond the right to vote. The East London Federation of Suffragettes, for example, began organising within working class communities starting self-help projects: a toy factory run by the workers, centres for the unemployed, a newspaper (the 'Woman's Dreadnought') a creche and cost price restaurants. In this way they began to raise questions about overcoming women's oppression in the wider context of political and social change."
