The earliest issues (1-3) of Scarlet Women were very ‘newsletter’-like — typed pages reproduced on a Gestetner with no graphics. From issue 4, the collective started to incorporate graphics and handwritten text, and adopted a more ‘magazine’-like layout. The striking calligraphic logo was introduced in issue 5; by issue 8, the cover was printed in single colour (usually red or green). The front cover of issue 11 featured a graphic design for the first time – the outline of Ireland and Northern Ireland incorporating the face of a protesting woman, in deep green. This issue was produced by the Belfast Women’s Collective and the artwork was done by the Women in Media group (who pen a brief introduction discussing the process and politics of production). The issue is full of striking images and photographs in black and white, some in a ‘woodcut’-like style. The Women in Media Group used the facilities of the Print Workshop, Belfast to produce the artwork for this issue, and borrowed graphics from Dawn Magazine’s lending library. The cover of issue 12, on the theme of ‘Women’s Oppression Under Imperialism’, features a (charcoal?) drawing by feminist artist Monica Sjöö. The two-part issue 13, on the theme of sexuality, features cartoon covers and characterises itself as a ‘journal’ for the first time (as well as for ‘women only’). This issue makes inventive use of hand-drawn dividers and borders, as well as cartoons. Issue 14’s 3-D effect graphic cover, on the theme of women and technology, contrasts with the hand-drawn cartoon on the back cover featuring a messy, paper-strewn magazine office filled with women dreaming of ‘a computerised office’.

Arose out of the frustration women on the left felt towards the attitude, common in left-wing groups of the time, that the ‘woman question’ would be dealt with ‘after the revolution’. Alongside the production of Scarlet Women, members of the collective were also involved in setting up local Rape Crisis and Women’s Aid centres. Preceded by the Marxist-feminist publication Red Rag, Scarlet Women outlived its older sister. In addition to providing a North-East perspective on socialist feminist issues, founder member Penny Remfry recalls that the magazine ‘tried to have an internationalist perspective’, demonstrated by issues such as ‘Women’s Oppression Under Imperialism’ (12).

The Scarlet Women collective, including women from the North-East, North-West and London.

From issue 5, printed by Tyneside Free Press Workshop; from issue 10, printed by Moss Side Community Press, Women’s Co-Op, Manchester.

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Penny Remfry’s recollection of how Scarlet Women began and developed: https://scarletwomen.home.blog/about/