Insurance Monday

Pro-female suffrage propaganda postcard designed by the artist Louise Jacobs for the Suffrage Atelier. Headed with the title 'Insurance Monday' the image depicts two female householders turning away a range of tradesmen whilst the Tax collector looms in the background. Below is the caption 'Chorus of Housewives, We never employ extra help on Monday'. The postcard probably refers to the introduction of the National Insurance Act of 1911 that required employers to pay a weekly national insurance contribution for each of their employees. The application of the terms of the act to domestic servants was particularly opposed by female householders whose cause was highlighted by pro-suffrage campaigners.

The artist Louise Jacobs designed a number of postcards and posters for the Suffrage Atelier, her most powerful and evocative design being the Appeal of Womanhood. Louise lived in Chelsea with Mary Wheelhouse, a member of the Artists' Suffrage League. The Suffrage Atelier was founded by a group of pro-suffrage artists in February 1909, 'to encourage Artists to forward the Women's Movement, and particularly the Enfranchisement of Women, by means of pictorial publications.' The Atelier artists specialised in hand-made wooden block prints, stencilling and etchings and produced visually powerful posters and postcards to publicise the pro-suffrage campaign.