Waiting For a Living Wage

Pro-female suffrage propaganda postcard designed by Catharine Courtauld and printed at the Suffrage Atelier. Headed 'Waiting for a Living Wage'' the black and white postcard depicts an exhausted female worker and refers to the powerless situation of women employed in the sweated industries. The message being that working conditions for these women will only improve once women won the right to vote and gained a voice in parliament. This design was also published in poster format, both in black and white and hand-coloured.

The artist Catharine Courtauld was a member of the Suffrage Atelier founded in London in February 1909. Its aim was: '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.