Attention femmes au travail ! Les figures féminines dans les affiches de prévention des accidents du travail

Abstract

Published in order to be closer to workers, posters warning workplace accidents which were produced by the association AINF from the 1950’s to the 1990’s display a variety of feminine characters. Whatever they are drawn alone or in mixed groups, at the forefront or in the background, they represent many inconsistent profiles : a protective divinity, a housewife who is waiting for her husband, a seductive woman who is disturbing male colleagues’ attention, a nurse who is taking care of a wounded man, a female worker with a hair net in front of her machine, an office assistant who is dropping because of her heels, a female employee who promotes warning of workplace accidents.Besides their graphic and aesthetic values, theese posters show a double reality : there are women on workplaces and there are some risks that are speficic for female workers in working areas. Thus, women are considered not just as the subject featured in the poster, but also as the target of the poster warning workplace accidents.

Keywords

• posters
• accident
• warning
• working woman