Designing Women: Women Working in Advertising and Publicity From the 1920s to the 1960s

Although it is recorded that women working in advertising and publicity had begun to come together for mutual support soon after World War 1, little is known of their individual contributions to the industry. Despite the range of literature on the history of British advertising, women have received only cursory mention and only occasional illustration. Yet some of the earliest British advertising agencies were run by women executives, such as Ethel M.Wood of Samson Clark; additionally, some of the most important and prolific graphic artists were women, such as Dora Batty for London Transport, Dorrit Dekk for the Orient Line and Daphne Padden for the bus companies. Designing Women tells of the contribution of some of these pioneering women and their undeniable place, in advertising history.