Designing the SocialDesigning the Social

For many feminist collectives, initiatives, workgroups and foundations, it was (and still is) important to find horizontal organisational working structures. That is: to avoid hierarchies which allow abuse of power.

The aim of a feminist work ethic is that every task and role is to be taken seriously and equally valued. Going through archives, we often find no direct links to authors of a text, or designers of a poster linked to the feminist movements. While in some cases it might have been simply forgotten to sign the work, it can also be read as a political stance: instead of naming individual authors - be it of a text, a poster or an action - it's the feminist group, or even the movement at large, that leaves a collective signature. This emphasises the importance of collaboration and multivocality as a feminist value and can also function as a protection when a difficult issue is addressed or a brave feminist action taken.

Archives

The archival material used for this section includes:

Poster "Zwarte vrouwenvriendschappendag" (FDS_IMG096)
Atria-IAV, affiche

Poster "Vrouw grijp houvast, verbeter die baan." (FDS_IMG086)
International Institute of Social History, IISG