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Archival description
Maternity Alliance
GB 106 5MAL · c.1980-c.2005

The archive consists of the organisation's archives and Maternity Alliance publications. It includes Annual Reports and Accounts, the papers for the Annual General Meetings, the Minutes of the Executive and Management Committees and the papers of the working parties and subcommittees that reported to them, a complete set of the MA monthly newsletter, MA publications (including reports, fact-sheets, training notes, booklets and books), Directors' working papers (Christine Gowdridge), press cuttings, posters, a MA clock, an award.

The records reflect the organisation's work in:

  • Education (this includes educating employers and individuals of what was existing legal provision for maternity, but also education related to campaigning to reduce inequality in maternity provision, including lobbying government and trade unions for key changes in maternity provision);
  • Research into and support for specific groups (ethnic minorities; travellers; teenagers; asylum seekers; disabled etc);

  • Publications: Creating publications to support the above work;

  • Training: Creating published training resources and providing training sessions for those who worked with target communities (i.e. those who worked with parents on rights and benefits such as the DSS; Social workers; Advice groups and charities);

  • Policy and Project Work (such as a Teenage Pregnancy Project which included a resource and training pack);

  • Advisory Services (through the web site; through key publications; and through the Advice Line);

  • Conferences (particularly research based courses to highlight specific campaigns).

Maternity Alliance
GB 106 TWL.poster · 1877-2000

As at Jan 2009, The Women's Library held approximately 1050 posters in the Museum Collection, with c 100 posters identified in the archives.

The earliest posters held result from suffrage activities and can be divided into three main groups; advertisements for meetings and events, illustrated propaganda posters arguing why women should get the vote, and thirdly newspaper bills bearing suffrage related headlines, used to promote paper sales.

All other posters are arranged by subject and date from the 1970s to the present day. The collection represents a mixture of women's campaigning, campaigning by organisations to promote gender equality, and posters produced to advertise women-focused events and publications. There are a small number of posters that portray women's issues and campaign work internationally. The work of The Equal Opportunities Commission in England and Ireland is particularly well represented as a result of a large donation of their obsolete posters during the 1990s. Also well represented with almost 80 posters is the work of See Red Women's Workshop, a women's liberation screen-printing collective (1974-1984).

The Women's Library