LaborArts


Cartoon art

Item no. 26016
1986
Occupation: Building and construction trades
Collection: Wagner Labor Archives

To raise awareness about women working in non-traditional trades, the organization Tradeswomen turned to a cartoonist to help them reach an audience of children, including those in immigrant communities. They created this coloring book in English, Spanish and Korean, with the artist bülbül, who has been drawing cartoons for the labor movement since the early 1970s. Here a mother is a construction worker peeking her head from out of a manhole to meet her children for lunch while working overtime on Saturday. Note the sign, "Woman Working," and the different types of work being depicted in the drawing.

Visit our Little Tradeswoman Coloring Book exhibit to see the other cartoons in this series, and Sisters in the Brotherhood to learn more about the history of blue-collar women through photographs, printed ephemera and oral history. 

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