Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
The United Nations held their third women’s conference in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985. Made for the Alliance Against Women’s Oppression, Fuentes’ poster announced a parallel conference for non-governmental organizations. While UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Reagan’s UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick attended the official UN conference, neither offered any support to women oppressed by poverty, racism, classism, and colonialism. This underscored the Alliance’s assertion that simply having a woman in power does not alleviate oppression.
This print, sold at the Alliance’s conference to defray delegates’ travel expenses, features a woman holding a basket containing images of Nelson Mandela (imprisoned at this time), anti-apartheid activist Steven Biko, and others. Fuentes donated his labor for several posters for this organization and its earlier incarnation, Third World Women’s Alliance.