International Women’s Day

From Frauentag! Erfindung und Karriere einer Tradition

To commemorate International Women’s day today, and to follow up on the huge success of the University Library’s exhibition featuring women’s suffrage posters, in this blogpost we are going to showcase two diverse items that deal with the visual representation of women, their freedom, rights and role in society.

Frauentag! Erfindung und Karriere einer Tradition (C212.c.8465) was published in 2011 to accompany an exhibition entitled Feste. Kämpfe. 100 Jahre Frauentag, held at the Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde. The exhibition marked 100 years since the first International Women’s Day was observed in 1911, when in Vienna women marched on the Ringstrasse, carrying banners. The exhibition (and book) focused in particular on the history of the women’s movement in Austria and included a whole section on the variety of posters relating to International Women’s Day.

Mujer, prensa y libertad: España 1883-1939 (C205.d.2721) deals with the image of women in the press within the context of a changing Spanish society at a time when they start reclaiming emancipation and rights, both in the public and in the private spheres. Posters depicting women’s participation in the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939), for example, help to examine how their active role evolved shortly after obtaining the right to vote in 1931.

Katharine Dicks and Clara Panozzo