Reclaiming the F-Word:
Posters on International FeminismS
Reclaiming the F-Word: Posters on International FeminismS refers to
women’s movements in the plural—to feminismS—to acknowledge and honor our
similarities and differences. The national and international posters in this
exhibition reflect a deepening awareness that women’s struggles, women’s
leadership and women’s activism throughout the world challenge oppressive
conditions in diverse and creative ways.
In the 1960s, when the second wave* of women’s organizing blossomed throughout the western
world, women’s rights advocates and women’s liberationists cloaked themselves
with the mantle of feminism. And while the term may have been modified to note
differentiations between liberal feminists, radical feminists, anarchist
feminists, socialist feminists, lesbian feminists, there was nonetheless the
assumption that there was a basic core of beliefs that united feminists: that
women were united by gender oppression.
Alternative voices questioned the primacy of
gender, but not until the 1980s did the growing cacophony of voices of women of
color in the United States reach a critical mass. At the same time, there was
increased visibility of women’s organizing in Asia, Africa, Latin America and
the Middle East. In the U.S., this led to a discourse about the intersection of
race, class, gender and sexuality; and on the international level, it led to a
challenge of concepts like “global feminism” which claimed that gender was the
defining and unifying issue.
The varieties of women’s experiences, especially
in the global south, required concepts of feminism that incorporated not only
race, class and sexuality, but colonialism. Accordingly, the discourse to
describe their oppression and the strategies to combat it follows very different
trajectories for women in different social, geographic and cultural contexts.
To honor these differences and to challenge a
western hegemonic discourse, we refer to women's movementS in the plural
– or to feminismS. This reflects our deepening awareness of how the
multi¬ple forms of women's activ¬ism throughout the world all work to challenge
patriarchal hierarchies.
Posters from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe,
North and South America explore class, race and gender as they show women at
the forefront of struggles for human rights and social change. Powerful
graphics depict diverse feminist issues from the suffragettes to the activism
of the 1970s to today. The family unit, childcare, labor, ecology, trafficking and
violence are just some of the topics covered.
Posters show women organizing against the Viet
Nam War and against Apartheid in South Africa. They decry the ongoing murders
of women in Juarez, Mexico and the use of rape as a military weapon in Darfur, Sudan.
By expanding the definition of feminism, Reclaiming
the F-Word should inspire women and men, of all ages, to be proud to
call themselves feminists.
* Definitions of Western FeminismS
First-wave feminism refers to a period
of feminist activity during the nineteenth and early twentieth century in the
United Kingdom and the United States. It focused on legal inequalities,
primarily on gaining women's suffrage (the right to vote). The term first wave
was coined retroactively in the 1970s.
Second-wave feminism refers to a period
of feminist activity which began during the 1960s and lasted through the late
1970s. Where first-wave feminism focused on overturning legal (de jure)
obstacles to equality, second-wave feminism addressed unofficial (de facto) inequalities
as well. This period of the women's
movement acknowledged its foremothers by calling itself second-wave feminism.
Third-wave feminism is a term
identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study
beginning in the early 1990s. The movement arose as a response to perceived
failures and backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second
wave. Made up of 20- and 30-something women who came of age in the 80's and
have always known a world with feminism in it.
I. Ain’t I A Woman?
1. And Ain't
I a Woman?
Ann Grifalconi
Offset, 1971
4176
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was born into
slavery in
Isabella experienced a religious conversion and moved to
2. Feminism Isn't a Dirty Word
Diane Blackwell
Offset, 2007
27899
3. Women Are Not Chicks
Women's Graphics Collective
Offset, 1972
08840
The Women's Graphics Collective was organized in
4. Why Should an Indian Woman
Have to Bleach Her Hair to Be Accepted?
Akwesasne Notes
Glad Day Press
Offset, 1973‑1979
03754
Buffy Sainte-Marie (born 1941) is an Academy
Award-winning Canadian First Nations musician, composer, visual artist,
educator and social activist. Many of her protest songs and love songs, written
as a college student in the early 1960s, became huge hits and classics of the
era, performed by hundreds of other artists including Barbra Streisand, Elvis
Presley, Chet Atkins, Janis Joplin, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, Tracy Chapman
and The Boston Pops Orchestra. Her "Universal Soldier" became the
anthem of the peace movement. For her
very first album she was voted Billboard's Best New Artist. By age 24, she had
appeared all over Europe,
5. The Birth of Feminism
Guerrilla Girls
Silkscreen, 2001
17610
The Guerrilla Girls are an
anonymous group of women artists, writers, performers, and filmmakers who fight
discrimination. Dubbing themselves the conscience of culture, they declare
themselves counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders
like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger. They wear gorilla masks to focus
on the issues rather than their personalities. They use humor to convey
information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny.
The Birth of Feminism mocks
the movie industry, which avoids substantive portrayals of women in favor of
sexualizing their bodies. The
"film" pays homage to feminist vanguards—Gloria Steinem, Flo Kennedy,
and Bella Abzug—but has them played by sexy bathing suit clad actresses wearing
the feminists' trademark oversize hats (Abzug and Kennedy) and oversize glasses
(Steinem). Gloria Steinem was one of the founding editors of Ms. Magazine. Flo Kennedy (who frequently wore cowboy hats
with pink sunglasses) was one of the first black women to graduate from
6. The Women's Liberation
Movement
Pro‑Arts
Silkscreen, 1970
14375
7. Woman's Lib
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1971
17022
8. Feminism: Erase the
Stereotype
Pierrette Montone
Digital Print, 2007
27890
9. We are in for a Very, Very
Long Haul...
Maia Sortor
Photo: Beryl Goldberg
Offset, 1977
03291
Jill Ruckelshaus (
10. There Is a Woman in Every Color
Elizabeth Catlett
Offset, 1994
28002
(To be included)
II. Women’s
Work is Never Done
11. Labor
Maryann Picinic
Graphic Work
Workforce Development
Institute (WDI)
Bread and Roses Cultural
Project of 1199 SEIU
NYS AFL‑CIO
Justseeds Radical Culture
Offset, circa 2006
27997
12. Attention ‑ Femmes
au Travail
Conféderation des Syndicats
Nationaux
Offset, 1994
12082
Attention—Women Working
13. SLAVES AND ANGELS: Women and the Industrial Revolution
Poster-film Collective
Silkscreen, 1970s/1980s
London, United Kingdom
3079
14.
Nuestro Labor Mantiene La Economía Del Mundo
Favianna Rodriguez
Offset, 2008
28012
Our Labor Drives the World Economy
15. Capitalism Also Depends
on Domestic Labour
See Red Women's Workshop
Silkscreen, circa 1983
3747
16. Fuck Housework
Virtue Hathaway
Offset, 1971
27998
17. So That Explains the Difference in Our
Salaries
Northern Sun Merchandising
Offset, 1988
9772
18. If Women Were Paid the
Same Wages
Nancy Hom
Women's Economic Agenda
Project
Silkscreen, 1987
3727
19. $3 Million $6 Million
Women's Action Coalition
Offset, 1993
14283
20. Do Women Have to Die When Their Husbands
Die?
Linda Kiveu
Digital Print, 2008
28011
Widowed women in
21. My Friend Has a Salvadoran Maid
Sheila Pinkel
Offset, 1991
12059
22. Women's Work is Never Done
Yolanda López
Silkscreen, 1995
6038
Dolores C. Huerta (born 1930)
co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO
(UFW) is shown in the upper left corner. She is a social activist, labor
leader, and mother of 11 children.
Huerta and Cesar Chavez organized and founded the Farm Workers Association,
precursor of the UFW, in 1962 in
23. Kazi Za Mwanamke Zisizo
Na Ujira
Artist Unknown
Offset, circa 1980s
3746
Women's work without wages
By the time night arrives I'm exhausted
Still, I am told that I am not working.
Is none of this work unless it's at the office?
24. N ap Batay Pou San Nou
Pa Koule Gratis
Valcin
Solidarité Fanm
Ayisyen
Offset, 1989
12962
We are struggling so that our blood does not
flow in vain
Haitian Women’s Solidarity
25. Single Mothers Do It
Alone
Julie Shiels
Silkscreen, c.1990
23141
26. Si Se Puede!
J. Howard Miller
Offset, 2001
17427
Contemporary
Spanish version of the popular U.S. Government-issued “Rosie the Riveter”
poster from World War II. “Rosie the Riveter” was part of a national campaign to encourage
women to get out of the house and into the factories while the men were
fighting oversees. To this end, Good Housekeeping and other popular women’s
magazines printed quick and easy 30 minute recipes for dinner. After the war,
women were pressured to leave the factory jobs, making them available for the
men returning from war. To encourage their
return to housework, women’s magazines began publishing recipes for more
elaborate meals, requiring much longer preparation.
III. Challenging Gender Roles
27. A Woman Without A Man
Artist Unknown
Offset, circa 1970s.
9562
This quote is attributed to feminist
Gloria Steinem, but may have originated as anonymous graffiti.
28. Which one's the Man?
Dyke Action Machine
Offset, 1990s
16517
Founded by Carrie Moyer and Sue Schaffner
in 1991, Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!) is
a public art collaboration that critiques mainstream culture by inserting
lesbian images into a recognizably commercial context. They have produced and
wheat-pasted thousands of posters on the streets of New York City, right next
to mainstream outdoor advertising, becoming a seamless part of the visual
environment. DAM!'s
public art projects, while "passing" as advertising, reach a more
diverse audience than exhibitions at galleries or museums.
29. She Who Waits For Her
Knight
Artist Unknown
Offset, n.d.
27385
30. Wer
Braucht Charlie Brown?
Artist Unknown
Offset, n.d.
27939
Who Needs Charlie Brown?
This reference to the popular
Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz, first appeared as the October 1973
cover illustration for Focus: A Journal for Gay Women (
31. Alle
Frauen sind mutig!
Independent Woman
Federation
Offset, n.d.
27930
All women are courageous!
strong! beautiful!
Also for a secure future for
women and children in the European house
32. Lesbians Are Coming Out
In Full Force!
See Red Women's Workshop
Silkscreen, circa 1980
9882
33. Closets Are For Clothes ‑
Color Yourself Out!
Women's Graphics Collective
Silkscreen, 1979
4568
34. Support A Woman's Right
to Choose Her Spouse
Kelly Fitzpatrick
Offset, 2007
27902
35. Gay Marriage
Dyke Action Machine
HX For Her
Offset, 1997
10040
A Woman's Right to Choose…Her
Spouse: Same Sex Marriage
Until 2001, when the
The actions by state legislatures and courts don't address more
than 1,000 federal protections and rights (including the ability to file joint
tax returns, share Social Security, Medicare, military and other benefits,
etc.). The religious right has seized upon the issue—as they have with
reproductive rights and affirmative action—to rally ultra-conservative
supporters, stirring up feelings of fear and intolerance. Bowing to that
pressure, many states have already adopted "Defense of Marriage Acts"
(DOMA) prohibiting same-sex marriage.
Some LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transgender) activists have been
critical of the campaign for same-sex marriage because of the slew of new
anti-gay laws that it has kindled. For others it brings up the old debates
about assimilation, as evidenced by this exhibition's Dyke Action Machine!
poster, worded Gay marriage—you might as well be straight.
Some argue that marriage is inherently oppressive—anti-queer and anti-female—and
so gays and lesbians should not support such a discriminatory institution by
adopting it.
36. No One Can Punish Us for
Liking Sex!
Jeanette May
Coalition for Positive
Sexuality
Offset, 1996
11106
37. Every Girl Every Boy
Offset, 2004
28000
38. Get me out of here!
Evelyn Krampf
Free Zone
Silkscreen, 2002
27269
This poster was part of a
series of seven posters created by youth for youth
through Free Zone 2002, a collaboration of GSA Network, LYRIC, and Mission Grafica.
Entitled, Liberation Ink, the series was designed to build a
presence of youth voices for justice, peace, and youth empowerment and against
hatred, harassment, and discrimination of all kinds.
Transgender is the state of one’s “gender identity” (self-identification
as male, female, both or neither) not matching one’s “assigned gender”
(identification by others as male or female based on physical/genetic
sex). Transphobia
refers to discrimination against transgender people, based on the expression of
their internal gender identity. Because
of the unyielding dominance of our society’s rigidly constructed two-gender
model, transgendered individuals often face great discrimination. Many
are rejected by their own families and friends. Most face social isolation, and
are discriminated against in employment, health care, social services and
housing.
39. Change Starts with YOU
Lauren Bruton
Free Zone
Silkscreen, 2002
27263
Also part
of the series, Liberation Ink.
IV. Our Bodies Our Lives
40. Murdered By "Pro‑Lifers"
Refuse & Resist!
Offset, circa 1989
3757
41. Guerrilla Girls Demand a Return to Traditional Values on Abortion
Guerrilla Girls
Offset, 1992
10181
42. Stop Forced Sterilization
People's Press
Silkscreen, 1970s
9708
This poster critiques the ideology
of population control - the idea that zero population growth is the solution to
problems of dwindling resources, world hunger, pollution, etc. Population control directs attention away
from the disproportionate use of resources in capitalist economies. This poster insists on reproductive rights as
liberation from class, race, and sexual oppression, and identifies
43. Women Need Not Always
Keep Their Mouths Shut and Their Wombs Open!
Red Pepper Posters
Offset, 1976
6614
Emma Goldman (1869‑1940) was born in
44. L'amor és cec,
però tu cal que hi vegis clar.
Artist Unknown
Offset, circa 1983
4051
Love is blind, but you must
see clearly. Don't give up your freedom
as a woman.
45. Nobody Wants to Have an
Abortion
Catholics for a Free Choice
Offset, 1992
3730
46. Pro Choice
Medusa
Photocopy of Offset, 1989
3910
47. Back to the Back Alley?
Artist Unknown
Stencil, circa 1983
3895
48. Your Body Is a Battleground
Barbara Kruger
Offset, 1989
5297
49. My Mom Had an Illegal
Abortion
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1986
3764
50. No a la Mortalidad Materna
Cline
Offset, circa 1990
3854
No to
maternal death. In the
51. *Would Be
Eric Collins
Digital Print, 2008
27996
Bottom Text:
For Decades strict Chinese
laws governing population have lead the poor to abort female children in favor
of more desirable males. As a byproduct,
male to female sex ratios in Chinese children have become perversely
skewed. By 2020, male Chinese could
outnumber female by 30 million, a cultural disaster for a generation of men
unable to marry the 30 million murdered women they never knew.
Infanticide is the act of intentionally
taking the life of an infant. In many low income countries it is a form
of population control. The Chinese government introduced the ‘one-child
policy’ in 1979, resulting in many women resorting to forced abortions and in
some cases infanticide. Due to the practice of sex selection where male
sexes are preferred, also known as ‘son preference’ or ‘female de-selection,’
sex selective abortions are being practiced and abandonment of female babies is
also high. With the disproportionate numbers among the sexes, much of the
male population of
52. Genital Mutilation
Red Pepper Posters
Offset, 1980
3709
Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that
intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons. An
estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living
with the consequences of FGM. In
92 million girls age 10 years and above are estimated to have
undergone FGM and about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually. Procedures
are mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15, and
occasionally on adult women. In
V.
Take Back the Night…and the Day
53. Women Take Back the Night
Lynne Okun
Silkscreen, 1993
9253
Take Back the Night (also known as Reclaim the Night) is an internationally
held march and rally intended as a protest and direct action against rape and
other forms of violence against women.
The first Reclaim the Night march was held in
54. Ask Any Woman About Sexual Harassment
Robbin
Offset, 1991
3693
The men pictured in this
poster did not support women's rights and many considered them to be sexist.
(L-R) Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary of
Defense, 1981-1987; George Pratt Schultz, U.S. Secretary of State, 1982-1989;
Edwin Meese, Attorney General of the United States, 1985-1988; Ronald Reagan,
U.S. President 1981-1989; Norman Mailer, writer
55. Do Women Have to be Naked
to Get into Met. Museum?
Guerrilla Girls
Offset, 2004
26979
The statistics listed on the original 1989 version this poster:
“Less than 5% of the
artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.” Fifteen years later, there are less women
artists in the Met…but more representations of nude men.
56. Estos Anuncios son Dañinos para la Mujer
Coordinadora Nacional de la Mujer Salvadoreña
Offset, circa 1991
3915
These ads are harmful for
women.
--Prepare your vehicle
(machine) well for these vacations.
--Only for gentlemen with
desires for something different and exclusive and free beer everyday.
--A good way to get
attention.
Produced by the National Coordinator of
Salvadoran Women (CONAMUS)
57. Eveready
Warren Olufemi
Karib
Offset, late 1970s
25705
A real advertisement showing
both objectification of women and woman as commodity.
58. Mujer Lucha por tu Liberacion
Frente de Liberacion de la Mujer
Offset, circa 1983
Spain
3707
59. Rompamos el Silencio
Marisa Godínez
Coordinador de Organizaciones Feministas
Offset, circa late 1980s‑early
1990s
Peru
4010
Let's break
the silence
60. El Dijo Que Nunca Volvería a
Golpearte... Pero Eso es
lo Que Dijo la Ultima Vez.
Coordinadora Nacional de la Mujer Salvadoreña
Offset, circa 1991
3916
He said he was never going to
hit her again… but that was what he said the last time. Stop the cycle of
violence.
Produced by the National
Coordinator of Salvadoran Women
61. When Love Is a Contact
Sport Women Lose
Liz Harvey
Women's Action Coalition
(WAC)
Offset, 1995
9881
WAC produced a series of
posters on domestic violence when O.J. Simpson was on trial for the 1994
murders of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. During
the trial, a tape was played of a 911 call Nicole placed asking police for help
after Simpson allegedly broke down a back door to her house. Simpson was a star
football player, actor, spokesman
and broadcaster.
Nicole is shown in the poster with eye black under her eyes, reminiscent
of both black eyes from domestic violence, and the eye black worn by her
football player husband.
62. Rural Women Unite Against
Violence
Network of Rural Women's
Groups
Silkscreen, no date
27855
63. Eddie's Got a Fast Car
Offset, circa 1994
Los Angeles, California
7711
64. It Makes Me Feel Sad When
My Mom Gets Hurt
Offset, early 1980s
3106
65. Aboriginal Women are
Watching You!
Sally Morgan
Offset, 1988
21947
66. This is Not an Invitation
to
Charles Hall
Tony Ward
Offset, circa 1995
Los Angeles, California
9865
67. This is Not an Invitation
to
Charles Hall
Offset, circa 1995
Los Angeles, California
9879
Two of a series of 15 black‑and‑white
prints by
Hall believed rape was
something that happened to other people until a friend of his was attacked by someone
she met at a party in his
The importance of this
campaign is underscored by a 2005 survey carried out by Amnesty International,
which found that a third of the 1000 people polled believed a woman was
partially or completely responsible for being raped if she behaved
flirtatiously. The same poll found that over 25 per cent believed she is at
least partly to blame if she wore revealing clothing or was drunk.
68. Las Mujeres de Juárez Exigen Justicia
Digital Print, 2003
21637
We shall play in the desert
while there are no wolves, because if they appear they will kill us all…The
Women of
69. crimen: 298* castigo: 0
Eduardo Barreda
Digital Print, 2003
Mexico
21636
City of Juarez
Crime: 298* Punishment: 0
*official figure
The dead women of
Mujeres de Cuidad Juarez
Femicide in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico
Since the adoption of NAFTA in 1994, more than 500 women have been
abducted and murdered in Cuidad Juarez and
Under NAFTA, numerous maquiladors or
assembly plants sprouted up along this border town. Many women left their small traditional
communities to work at slave wages and in unsafe working conditions. Many
plants and factories hold working hours at later hours in the day to cut on
energy costs, adding to the high-risk variables for the women workers.
In
the face of almost unbelievable official apathy and police incompetence, a
group of graphic designers from
70. Stop Strip Searches in
Sinn Fein Women's Department
Offset, circa 1985
4045
Built in 1790, Armagh Jail became a
top-security prison for Nationalist women in the 1970s. Strip-Searching was introduced into Armagh Prison in 1982. All women prisoners
from the age of 15 years, women menstruating, pregnant women, women returning
to prison after hospital visits, and grandmothers were subjected to
strip-searching. At first the women
refused to comply and were forcibly restrained while their clothing was torn
off. The women quickly learned that any
resistance meant that they would be forcibly stripped, assaulted, and that they
could end up in solitary confinement, losing remission and privileges.
The “Stop the Strip-Searches Campaign” began in June 1984. It called for an end to the strip-searching
of women prisoners and condemned strip-searching as a devastating psychological
weapon used against women having no security purpose. By 1992, over 4,000
strip-searches had been carried out on women in prisons in
71. Rape Wasn't Part of Her Sentence
Amnesty International
IMA
Nonstøck, Inc./David Mayenfisch
Offset, 1999
24439
72. Have Women Become That
Much More Dangerous?
Scott Boylston
Two Brothers Custom
Silkscreen
Bony Toruño
Center for the Study of
Political Graphics
Silkscreen, 2006
25024
Scott Boylston originally
made this poster in 2003, but was asked to update it in 2005 for the Action
Committee for Women in Prison. In
2003, there were 100,000 women in prison.
Two years later there were 140,000. Here is his response to the new
information he found:
.... My job of updating the
information graphics of the poster was sobering, and it goes right to the heart
of why graphics can be so compelling... Just redesigning it made the increase
in female inmates from 2003 to 2005 disturbingly concrete. I hate to think what
a poster like this will look like in five years...
—Scott Boylston
73. Prostitution Trafficking
Mona Mark
Coalition Against Trafficking
in Women
United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural
Organization
Offset, 1995
27682
Human trafficking and transportation of women against their will
for sexual exploitation occurs everyday around the world. In many poor countries
human traffickers lure young girls into sex trade by offering them money or
jobs abroad. Other times traffickers may be members of the girl's family. It's
not just men who are exploiters. Women traffickers recruit uneducated girls by
posing as successful business people the girls would want to emulate. Sometimes
the girls are sold outright by desperately poor parents.
According to the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) as many as 800,000 people may be trafficked across international borders,
with hundreds of thousands trafficked within the borders of their own
countries. 71% of victims who are bought and sold or forced across different
borders and countries are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
VI. Women & War
74. This Woman is Vietnamese…
John Schneider
Collective Graphics Workshop
Offset, 1970
28009
75. Imperialist War and Male
Chauvinism
Women's Graphics Collective
Silkscreen, circa 1971
Chicago, Illinois
10694
76. Machismo Es Fascismo
Juan Carlos
Young Lords Party
Silkscreen, 1970
27801
Machismo is Fascism
The Young Lords began as a
77. Cambodge
Artist Unknown
Silkscreen, early 1970s
4023
78. Happy Mother's Day?
Artist Unknown
Offset, ca 1970
4889
79. Torture In
Nancy Spero
Silkscreen, 1975
6019
Text: Torture in
On September 11, 1973, the
democratically elected government of
Women's Graphics Collective
Liberation Graphics
Silkscreen, circa late 1970s
Chicago, Illinois
4134
81. Mujeres Luchadoras de la Libertad
Julie Shiels
Ximena Urizar
The Multicultural Women's
Poster Project
Silkscreen, 1988
23129
Women Fighters for
82. Melida
Anaya Montes
Artist Unknown
Offset, circa 1983
3911
Ana María (1929 – 1983) was the nom de guerre of Mélida Anaya Montes, the second in command of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front or FMLN,
a revolutionary guerrilla organization in
83. Nicaragua Must Survive
La Asociación de Mujeres
Nicaragüenses "Luisa
Amanda Espinoza" [AMNLAE]
Offset, circa 1985
3858
Soon after the 1979 overthrow
of the U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua by the Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN), the Reagan administration formed a mercenary army
called the Contras (Counter-Revolutionaries), to destroy the schools, health
clinics and agricultural cooperatives supported by the FSLN. This poster of a Sandinista militia member
nursing her child was widely reproduced internationally. It was prominent in the Let Nicaragua Live
campaign to send construction materials, school supplies, seeds tools and medical
equipment to
84. Miss Guatemala
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1980s
6629
Rogelia Cruz Martinez (1940-1968)
was a university student, political activist, and Miss
85. Sexo
debil?
Asamblea de Artistas
Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (ASAR)
Stencil, 2006
26718
The
weaker sex?
In May 2006, 70,000 teachers went on strike in the southern
Mexican state of
A month later, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca
(APPO) formed as an umbrella group for 365 grassroots organizations including
unions, indigenous, peasant, and women’s groups. Women have been central to APPO’s organizing and actions. In August 2006, more than 3,000 women marched
through town, banging on pots and pans and chanting their demands to oust Ruiz.
The women then took over the state television station.
ASAR-O (Asamblea de Artistas
Revolucionarios ) (Oaxacan
Assembly of Revolutionary Artists), formed in October 2006, in response to a
call by APPO for every discipline to organize themselves. Since the conflict
began, APPO and ASAR-O have created stencils, woodcuts, linocuts and spray
painted graffiti calling for the resignation of the Governor Ruiz, for
indigenous rights, women’s rights, against police abuse, etc.
This ASAR-O poster evokes
classic photos of armed women soldiers from the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)
, also known as the Adelitas, with cartridge
belts crossed over their chests. Their
long braids identify them as indigenous women.
By juxtaposing this image of women with guns with the ironic title, “the
weaker sex?” the poster challenges still too common stereotypes about
traditional roles for women.
86. Women in Black
Lynne Okun
Silkscreen, 1989
3173
Women in Black began in 1988, with a few
women at a busy
87. You Shall Bear Cannon
Fodder
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1982
11242
You will give birth to cannon
fodder.
This is what nature commands
you, and it is also the law.
Bertolt Brecht
The quote comes from the Bertolt Brecht-Hanns Eisler song "Abortion is Illegal” (Ballad of Paragraph
218), written in the 1930s, and which may be the world's first pro-choice
song. In order to discourage abortion,
the doctor sings to an expectant mother, "You're going to make a lovely
little mother/You're going to make a hunk of cannon fodder/That's what your belly's for." Brecht directly refers to women's role as
baby-making machines during the Third Reich.
This Israeli peace movement poster, in Hebrew and Arabic, also shows
women as baby-making machines.
88. General Union of
Palestinian Women
Marc
Rudin (
World Conference of the
United Nations Decade for Women
Offset, 1980
Reprinted 1986 by Liberation
Graphics,
27813
The face of the woman is presented both frontally and in profile,
expressing the multiple challenges facing contemporary Palestinian women. She
wears a kaffiyeh (Arabic headdress)
traditionally considered a man’s garment, to suggest that Palestinian women see
their movement not merely in terms of a political struggle for national
self-determination but also as an inward-looking movement to challenge
long-standing social and cultural limitations on women. The shackles, though
broken, are still on the woman’s wrist representing that the struggle for
women’s liberation is ongoing.
89. Afghan Women Can't be
Enslaved
Revolutionary Association of
the Women of
Offset, circa 2001
Pasadena, California
17142
90. In Afghanistan
Revolutionary Association of
the Women of
Offset, circa 2001
17144
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA) was founded in Kabul
in 1977 to promote women's rights and secular
democracy through
non-violent strategies. Founder Meena Keshwar Kamal, was a
student activist who was assassinated in 1987 for her political activities. The organization strives to involve Afghani
women in both political and social activities to acquire human rights for women
and continue the struggle against the government of
RAWA was highly critical of the U.S. invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001,
emphasizing casualties among the civilian population. As RAWA advocates
multilateral disarmament and opposes all forms of religious
fundamentalism, it is regarded as a controversial group in
91. Condinatrix
Karen Fiorito
Silkscreen, 2005
Los Angeles, California
27999
A dominatrix standing astride
the
92. Day of Solidarity with
the people of
Berta Abelenda
Organización de Solidaridad de los Pueblos de Africa,
Asia y América Latina (OSPAAAL)
Offset, 1968
Havana, Cuba
2863
93. 7
de Abril 1983 Dia da Mulher Moçambicana
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1983
5425
7 of April 1983. Day of the Mozambican Woman.
Mozambican Women will produce
We will participate in the
defense of our homeland.
Long Live the 4o Congress
WOMEN IN
The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for the
Revolution, the guarantee of its continuity and the precondition for its
victory...How can the Revolution triumph without the liberation of women? Will it be possible to get rid of the system
of exploitation while keeping one part of society exploited?...If more than
half the exploited and oppressed people consist of women, how can they be left
on the fringe of the struggle? To make a
revolution it is necessary to mobilize all the exploited and oppressed, and
consequently women as well.
Samora Machel, 1975
President of
During the war for liberation (1964‑1975) from 400 years of
Portuguese colonialism, Mozambican women served as armed combatants and as
political organizers. After independence
in June 1975, the Organization of Mozambican Women (Organizacao
das Mulheres Mocambicanas ‑
OMM) mobilized to promote women's rights at home, in the work place and within
the government. Many women began training for previously all‑male
jobs: auto mechanics, tractor drivers,
machine operators. Child marriages and bride prices were outlawed. Child care centers were established by the
workers in most factories so mothers could take time off for breast feeding
during the day. Literacy classes were
formed in factories, on the farms, and even in the marketplace. At noon and after work, thousands learned to
read and write, in a concentrated effort to eradicate the 95% illiteracy rate
inherited at independence.
94. Remember Kassinga 4 May 78
South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO)
Offset, circa 1979‑80
Luanda, Angola
5416
95. Sexual Violence
Committee on CONSCIENCE
Michael Wadleigh
Offset, circa 2006
26896
Mass rapes in
VII. Organizing For Change
96. Women In Struggle
Poster-Film Collective
Flypress and Badger
Silkscreen, 1970s/1980s
15958
97. Emmeline
Pankhurst
Marlene E. Miller
Offset of woodcut, 1975
3702
Emmeline Pankhurst (1857—1928) was one of the
founders of the British suffragette movement. It is the name of "Mrs.
Pankhurst", more than any other, which is associated with the struggle for
votes for women in the period immediately preceding World War I. She was born Emmeline Goulden in Manchester,
England to abolitionist parents, and in 1879 married Richard Marsden Pankhurst,
a barrister who was already a supporter of the women's suffrage movement. Mrs. Pankhurst's tactics for drawing
attention to the movement resulted several times in her imprisonment. Due to
her high profile, she did not endure the same privations as many of the imprisoned
working‑class suffragettes; however, she did experience force‑feeding
after going on hunger strike. Her approach to the campaign did not endear her
to everyone, and resulted in splits within the movement.
In 1914, World War I
broke out and Pankhurst felt that nothing should interfere with her country's
efforts to win. All attempts to gain votes for women were put on hold, and her
efforts were instead directed to urging women to take over men's jobs, so that
the men could go and fight in the war. Enlistment of the unenlisted
was her highest priority. Although not
all of the members of the suffrage movement backed the war, Mrs. Pankhurst’s
influence swayed many to follow her lead, and the movement became pro-war and
pro-conscription, its’ Chauvinism unexampled amongst all the other women’s
societies. In 1918, voting rights were given to women over 30 who owned
property, while all men over 21 were enfranchised. Despite the limitations, the Suffragettes saw
it as a great victory. In 1928, women finally achieved equal voting rights to
men in the
98. My Train Never Jumped The
Track ‑ Harriet Tubman
Loren Moss
Organization
for Equal Education of the Sexes, Inc.
Offset, 1981
1340
Harriet Tubman, (c. 1821‑1913) was a fugitive slave and
abolitionist who became a legendary figure of the underground railroad. Born in
99. Women's Encampment for a
Future of Peace & Justice
Bonnie Acker
Offset, 1984
North America:
3741
100. Mary Harris
"Mother" Jones
Rupert García
Inkworks
Offset, 1989
11665
Mary Harris Jones (1830 or 1837-1930), better
known as Mother Jones, was born in
Where there was a strike, Mother Jones organized and aided the
workers, where there was none, she led educational meetings. She participated
in the 1877 railroad employees strike. In 1890 she became an organizer for the
United Mine Workers. Following the 1912‑13
Mother Jones opposed women's suffrage because, "the
plutocrats have organized their women to keep them busy with suffrage and
prohibition and charity." She helped found the Social Democratic party in
1898, and was one of the organizers of the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) in 1905.
101 Lucía González de Parsons
Carlos Cortez
Gato Negro Press
Linocut, 1986
2277
Don’t go on strike. Stay on the job and take possession of the
machines. If someone is going to be hungry, let it be the bosses!
Lucy Parsons (1853-1942) was a radical American
labor organizer, anarchist, feminist and powerful orator who spent her life
struggling for the rights of the poor, unemployed, women, children, and
minority groups. She was born in
Described in the 1920s by the Chicago
Police Department as "more dangerous than a thousand rioters" Lucy
Parsons and her husband had become highly effective anarchist organizers
primarily involved in the labor movement, but also working on behalf of
political prisoners, people of color, the homeless and women.
She was a recognized leader of the
predominantly white male labor movement in
102. Ida B. Wells‑Barnett
Ricardo Levins
Morales
Northland Poster Collective
Silkscreen, circa 1990
Minneapolis, Minnesota
4150
103. Wie Lassalle sagte
Artist Unknown
Offset, n.d.
27000
As Lasalle
said, it is
and remains the most revolutionary act, always
“to speak out aloud, what is.”
Rosa Luxemburg (1871—1919) was one of the founders of the Polish Social
Democratic Party and the Spartacus League, which developed into Germany's
Communist Party. She was killed during the Spartacus Revolt of January 1919.
Ferdinand Lasalle (1825—1864) was
founder of the General German Workers’ Association which later became the
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) (1875).
From its founding, the Social Democratic Party was divided between
those who advocated reform and those who advocated revolution.
.
104. Uprising of the 20,000
Ricardo Levins
Morales
Northland Poster Collective
Silkscreen, early 1990s
12288
(To be included)
105. Alexandra Kollontai
Red Pepper Posters
Silkscreen, 1985
27684
Alexandra Mikhaylovna Kollontai (1872—1952) was a Russian Communist revolutionary
who became People's Commissar
for Social Welfare after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. She was the most
prominent woman in the Soviet administration and was best known for founding
the Zhenotdel
or "Women's Department" in 1919. This organization worked to improve
the conditions of women's lives in the Soviet Union, fighting
illiteracy and educating women about the new marriage, education, and working
laws put in place by the Revolution. She was well recognized later for socialist feminism. The Zhenotdel was eventually closed in 1930.
Alexandra Kollontai is a profoundly unusual figure in the history
of the Soviet Union,
as she was an "Old Bolshevik" and a major public critic of the
Communist Party who was neither purged
nor executed by the Stalin regime, though as a diplomat serving abroad, she had
little or no influence in government policy or operations and so was
effectively exiled.
Kollontai's views on the role of marriage and the family under
Communism were arguably more subversive and more influential on today's society
than her advocacy of "free love." Kollontai believed that, like the
state, the family unit would wither away once the second stage of communism
became a reality. She viewed marriage and traditional families as legacies of
the oppressive, property-rights-based, egoist past. Under Communism, both men
and women would work for, and be supported by, society, not their families.
Similarly, their children would be wards of, and reared basically by society.
Kollontai admonished men and women to discard their nostalgia for traditional
family life.
106. Never Doubt
Susan L. Allen
Offset, 1991
3653
Margaret Mead (1901—1978) was a
distinguished anthropologist, intellectual and scientist. She is the author of
numerous books on tribal societies, as well as many contemporary issues
including education, ecology, the Women's Movement, the atomic bomb, student
uprisings, and the decriminalization of marijuana. Mead blended her knowledge with action. Time
Magazine named her "Mother of the World" in 1969. She served as a advisor to many presidents in the fields of ecology and
nutrition. She also had great concern about the role of science and technology
in world politics. Mead was one of the first people to propose that masculine
and feminine characteristics reflected cultural conditioning (or socialization)
not fundamental biological differences.
107. Now You Have Touched
the Women
Mary Sutton; Northland Poster
Collective
Digital Print of 1981
silkscreen
28001
108. Keep Bessie in Harlan
Miners Art Group
Offset, circa 1973
Belle,
12380
109. Fannie Lou Hamer ‑ The Woman Who Changed the South
Organization
for Equal Education of the Sexes, Inc.
Offset, 1992
4130
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917—1977) grew up in
The only thing they could do to me was kill me, and it seemed like
they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time every since I could
remember.
Hamer was arrested while attempting to register to vote in Indianola,
and after her release on bail the owner of the plantation where she lived, told
her to withdraw her name from the registration rolls or leave. Hamer left that night. A few days later, shots were fired
into the friends' house where she was staying, forcing her to leave the county
for several months. But Hamer did not give up her
efforts to vote, despite repeated threats and a severe beating in the
In 1963 she became a member of SNCC`s
staff, explaining that she had become "Just really tired" of what she
had to endure.
We just got to stand up now as Negroes for ourselves and for our
freedom, and if it don't do me any good, I do know the young people it will do good.
110. You Are the Spark that
Started Our Freedom Movement.
Donnelly/Colt
Offset, 1990
3530
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) is considered to
be the mother of the modern Civil Rights Movement. An activist with the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Alabama,
she became a symbol of human dignity when she was jailed on December 1, 1955
for refusing to relinquish her bus seat to a white man. Her arrest for violating
The photo shows her sitting
in the front of a
111. Support Equal Citizenship
Rights
Linda Kiveu
Digital Print, 2008
28010
Part of an MFA exhibition at
CSLA to use graphic design to promote and empower Kenyan women, and to
sensitize men about women’s rights in
112. The Significance of
Women's Social and Political Action
Gabriela
Offset, 1984
5507
113. Asian Women Workers
Struggling for Change
Committee for Asian Women
Offset, n.d.
27856
114. West Coast Conference
Artist Unknown
Silkscreen, 1975
12076
115. "Just once, let
us pull all our different splinter groups together"
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1972
8500
Shirley Chisholm (1924—2005) was a politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she
became the first African American woman elected to Congress, representing
116 . Women of the World
Unite!
Jurgen Grefe
Jane Carson
Offset, 1989
12101
This poster appropriates the
image of “Liberty Leading the People” (1830) by Delacroix, one of the most
famous and radical picture of its time, and combines it with a paraphrase of
“Workers of the world, unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!”,
one of the most famous rallying cries of communism,
from Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels's The Communist Manifesto (1848).
VIII. Embracing FeminismS
117. Make Out Not War
Favianna Rodriguez
Code Pink: Women for Peace
Offset, 2008
29385
One of 4
posters commissioned by Code Pink: Women for Peace to be distributed during
the 2008 Democratic National Convention in
118. Celebrations of Human
Dignity
Photo: Mike Abramson
Silkscreen, 1980
3734
119. Eleanor Roosevelt
Feminist Horizons
Offset, circa 1980s
Ontario, California
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884—1962) was First Lady
of the
Active in politics for the
rest of her life, she chaired the John F. Kennedy administration's
ground-breaking committee, the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women,
which helped start second-wave feminism. She worked to enhance the status of
working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she
believed it would adversely affect women.
120. If You Can Walk You Can Dance
African People's Socialist
Party
Photocopy, 1980s
North America:
2947
121. I Am No Longer Afraid of Mirrors
Sheila Levrant
de Bretteville
Peace Press
Offset, 1981
03111
122. We Celebrate Women's Struggles
Susan Shapiro
Inkworks
Offset, 1975
3695
123. International Women's
Year, Chicana 1975
Louie "the Foot"
Gonzalez
Royal Chicano Air Force
(RCAF)
Photo: Hector González
Silkscreen, 1975
Sacramento, California
2493
124. Power to Change,
Freedom to Choose
Bread and Roses Bookshop
Silkscreen, 1975
11036
125. Women's Emancipation
Day Poster, 1920
Adolph Strakhov
Bread and Roses Bookshop
Offset, 1920 poster reprinted
circa 1970s
North America:
4040
126. International Women's
Day
Gail Dolgin
Jane Norling
Photo: Tim Drescher
Offset, 1978
6566
International Women’s Day— On March 8, l857, women from
the garment and textile industry in
On March 8, 1908, thousands of
women from the needles trade industry demonstrated for the same demands. They also asked for laws against child labor
and for the right of women to vote. They declared March 8 to be Women's Day.
In 1910, Clara Zetkin, a German labor leader, proposed that March 8 be
proclaimed International Women's Day in memory of those women who had fought
for better lives. For almost 100 years,
March 8 has been celebrated in many countries, but has only been commemorated widely in the
127. International Women's
Day Celebration 1977
Artist Unknown
Offset, 1977
3718
128. So Long as Women Are Not Free the People Are
Not Free
See Red Women's Workshop
Silkscreen, 1974-1983
3712
129. When Women Become
Massively Political
Peg Averill
Offset, circa 1974
3694
130. Alice Walker in her
garden
Robert Allen
Offset, 1984
4097
Alice Walker (born 1944)
is an American
author
and feminist
(although she prefers the word Womanist). She received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 for her
critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple.
131. Organise
Fight On!
African National Congress
Offset, circa 1980s
5412
The African National Congress
(ANC) was founded in 1912 in response to the formation of the Union of South
Africa in 1910, which ignored the wishes of the majority of the people of