See Red Women's Workshop Bite the Hand poster

See Red Women’s Workshop’s silkscreen printed poster Bite the Hand, 1978, reproduced as a poster as part of our Women in Revolt! collection.

The poster was created in the late 1970s to encourage women to challenge the government even in the wake of several progressive acts coming into action. Printed in purple, a woman struggles to hold a paper shopping bag, into which a pinstripe-suited arm labelled H.M.Gov’t is putting several packages and cans, labelled ‘Sex Discrimination Act 1975’, ‘Equal Education + Opportunities 1975’ and ‘Equal Pay 1979’. Unfortunately the weight of the bag the woman carries is so great that the bottom has ripped: out falls various grocery items labelled ‘3,000,000 unemployed’, ‘cuts in social services’, ‘closures in schools + hospitals’, ‘Restricted abortion services’ and ‘Nursery cutbacks’. At the top right of the poster the words ‘Women! Bite the hand that “feeds” you’ is printed in green capital letters.

See Red Women’s Workshop are donating a portion of the profits made from each print to organisations working with women and girls. The poster is printed on FSC certified, responsibly sourced paper in a Sussex-based printworks. It measures 70 x 50 cm, including a small white border and the artwork credit line.

See Red Women’s Workshop was formed by three former art student to fight back against negative images of women in the media. Active from 1974 to 1990, the collective’s work challenged sexist and racist stereotypes, and created some of the most powerful protest posters of the time. Working with around 45 women overall, the group had no hierarchy, crediting all the women who worked on the posters equally.

• Exhibition Women in Revolt!
• Dimensions 70 x 50 cm
• Material FSC certified paper
• ISBN 5032495404969
• Credit Photography is courtesy of Four Corner Books