The aim of the exhibition is to present the difficult problem of the role of women in industry over the past 150 years, with a particular focus on the significance of the two world wars in the process. What played an important part in preparing the concept of the exhibition was the desire to note the increasing importance of women in industry, which has been overlooked for many years as well as dispel the stereotype that women have not been able to find their place in industry, are to weak physically, it is not their social role, or their presence in work facilities brings bad luck.

Women have always been present in the process of extracting minerals, especially in coal mining, as well as textile manufacture, where their role was so common that it became highly stereotyped. Even now, when we think about women in industry, it automatically brings to mind the image of a seamstress or a textile worker. The demand for labour during both world wars presented women with new perspectives of employment in the arms industry. The exhibition pays close attention to this topic.

Since Silesia is a particularly industrial region, whose history has been determined by industry and the patriarchal model has played an important role in Silesian society, the role of women in industry in such a context should be emphasised and accentuated, especially if we take into account the changes in the worldview taking place in today’s Polish society.

The exhibition is based or digital reproductions of photographs from the collections of various European and American institutions, such as: Muzeum Śląskie in Katowice The National Digital Archives; The State Archive in Gdańsk; Imperial War Museums, London; Museum for England; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USA, and many more. Carefully selected photos represent virtually every type of photography – propaganda, document, journalism, and art.

Curator: Mariusz Gąsior

Prohibition, exclusion, superstition

A photographic tale of women in industry

Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice, Dobrowolskiego 1 St. / The Gallery of Non-professional Art

Vernissage: 6 September (Friday) / 6:00 p.m. / level -2 at the ticket offices