Exhibition in Graz

Women still perform “invisible” work

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08.03.2024 10:00

The definition of work as gainful employment persists to this day. Yet women in particular perform a great deal of unpaid care work. In the Graz Museum of History, the exhibition "Alles Arbeit" (All Work) uses a photo archive from the post-war period to explore the public perception of these activities.

If you don't get paid, it's not work - this is still a widespread opinion today. But even alongside their gainful employment, women have done and continue to do a huge amount of unpaid care work - they are largely responsible for the household, bringing up children, but also caring for sick and elderly family members.

The visibility of work
But how was (and is) this perceived by the public? What images of female work were shown? The current exhibition "Alles Arbeit. Women between gainful employment and care work, Blaschka photo archive 1950 - 1966" at the Graz Museum of History provides interesting answers. "The question of the concept of work is at the heart of the show," explains curator Eva Tropper, "because forms of paid and unpaid work often overlapped in women's lives." This is still true today, where women perform an average of 3.19 hours of paid and 4.19 hours of unpaid work per day.

Exhibition curator Eva Tropper (Bild: UMJ/J.J. Kucek)
Exhibition curator Eva Tropper

The starting point for the exhibition is the Blaschka photo archive, which, with its more than 60,000 press photos from the post-war period, played a decisive role in shaping the image of women. Also on display are the image sections finally selected by the newspaper, which often reinterpret the original photo. The exhibition design (Robert Rüf) also has a number of gaps, as it was not only family models outside of the classic father-mother-child constellation that were invisible in those years, but above all single mothers.

Exciting figures and statistics
The exhibition throws some clichés out the window with exciting figures. For example, in the post-war period, far more women were in employment than one would assume - even if they often only earned half of what men were paid. The fact that equality has not yet been achieved is a social indictment.

Paid and unpaid work is shown on an equal footing (Bild: UMJ/J. J. Kucek)
Paid and unpaid work is shown on an equal footing

Interesting figures can also be found regarding the representation of women's work: Home-based work and political activity were only visible in the newspaper at one percent, work that is only seen when it is not being done - today it would be described as systemically relevant - was still present at 34 percent, and typical women's jobs in the service sector found their way into the media at 19 percent.

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Forms of paid and unpaid work often overlapped in women's lives.

Kuratorin Eva Tropper

All of this can be seen in the old press photos. Beyond that, however, the question arises as to what these images trigger in the viewer. "We don't want to show a series of individual images, but rather create an atmosphere and tell stories," says Tropper, who is responsible for the exhibition together with Astrid Aschacher and Samuel Hofstadler. "And we want to place paid and unpaid work side by side on an equal footing."

Women on the assembly line, "Moden Müller", 1959 (Bild: UMJ/Multimediale Sammlung/Fotoarchiv Blaschka)
Women on the assembly line, "Moden Müller", 1959
The doctor Helga Stulnig-Kanzian on a house call, 1956 (Bild: UMJ/Multimediale Sammlung/Fotoarchiv Blaschka)
The doctor Helga Stulnig-Kanzian on a house call, 1956
Rarely depicted: Old age and care (Bild: UMJ/Multimediale Sammlung/Fotoarchiv Blaschka)
Rarely depicted: Old age and care

The exhibition also has another interesting aspect to offer. Foto Blaschka (the reference under each published photo) consisted not only of the press photographer and journalist Egon Blaschka, who became the local head of the "Kleine Zeitung" in the 1950s, but also of his wife Erika, probably the only Styrian press photographer at the time. Her work also remained largely invisible. Only one photograph of her, taken by chance at an award ceremony, was found in the archive. It is of course also shown.

Random shot of Erika Blaschka (Bild: UMJ/Multimediale Sammlung/Fotoarchiv Blaschka)
Random shot of Erika Blaschka

Supporting program
As always, the Museum of History also offers an interesting supporting and educational program: curator tours are on the agenda on International Women's Day (8 March, 4 p.m.) or 22 March (4 p.m.), and on 26 April, in cooperation with Radio Helsinki, there will be an impulse tour and a mini-workshop on the subject of care. The exhibition will be on display until January 12, 2025.

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