Work, build and don’t whine: historic portrayals of women in art and design

Women today are told they can have it all: fulfilling work, family and recognition. In Soviet Russia, this wasn’t a luxury, but a back-breaking demand, as a series of posters, photographs and other artworks to go on show at London’s GRAD Gallery next month demonstrate.

Far from being seen as a feminist women’s prerogative, the demands on women were enforced in line with the regime’s propaganda, which dictated that women should be out at work – and working just as hard as men – but also fulfil their roles as mothers and housewives.

The brightly coloured posters depict smiling women in traditional full skirts with babes in arms, surrounded by messages that are at once empowering and terrifying: “Mothers, Don’t Kiss your Children on the Lips and Don’t Let Anyone Else Kiss Them,” reads one; “‘Let’s liberate women from the kitchen slavery for the work in socialist industry. Let’s organise amateur canteens,” declares another.

Partly in conflict to their traditional roles, under the Society Union women were instrumental to the birth of a new society. "The new Soviet Man had been launched to be the ‘man of the future’ according to Trotsky. He was to be selfless, learned, healthy, muscular, and enthusiastic in spreading the socialist Revolution. He would be Soviet rather than Russian, or any of the many other nationalities found in the USSR, and represent a selfless collectivism,” says GRAD.

“It was logical that a Soviet Woman would also be created, in theory with the same tasks, but in reality her roles were much more demanding, including as they did, bringing up a family and running a household – introducing the idea of the superwoman. Women were not just communist citizens, full-time workers, wives and mothers but also soldiers, scientists, dancers, cosmonauts and much more.”

This notion of the “superwoman” is delineated beautifully by the show’s range of imagery, from propaganda posters to paintings, postcards and sculpture.

“During the first 12 years of rapid industrialisation the number of women in the workforce jumped more than fourfold, from nearly three million in 1928 to over 13 million in 1940,” the gallery explains. “Yet whilst the new social order opened up new possibilities in female equality and leadership for some, the daily reality for most women was very different. In stark contrast to state discourse, many women found themselves ‘liberated, but not emancipated’.”

Superwoman: ‘Work, Build and Don’t Whine’ runs from 18 June – 17 September at GRAD, London.