Records of the Women's Media Action Group

The archive consists of Papers of Alliance for Fair Images and Representation in the Media (AFFIRM), Women's Media Action Group (WMAG) and the Women's Monitoring Network.

The collection includes policy documents including minutes, manifestos, programmes of action and press releases, correspondence of members with various individuals and groups including Lord Hill, the Home Office, etc on the images of women in the media, papers related to symposia organised by the group and the book 'Is This Your life?' administration papers and general correspondence.

Arranged into series representing AFFIRM, WMAG and the Women's Monitoring Network.

• <corpname>Alliance for Fair Images and Representation in the Media</corpname>
• <corpname>Women's Media Action Group</corpname>
• <corpname>Women's Monitoring Network</corpname>

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit. Appointments may be required to access the audio-visual material in the collection

The records were deposited with the Women's Library (formerly the Fawcett Library) in three accessions, firstly in May 1989 by the BBC, then in Jun 1996 by the group's archivist and then in 1999, also by the group's archivist.

The archives of the Women in Media Group were held in the homes of various members of the organisation before being deposited with the Women's Library (formerly the Fawcett Library). The papers were deposited by a former member of the organisation in Nov 1997. Some personal papers of Margaret Deyes, founder of AFFIRM were already integrated.

The Women's Media Action Group (WMAG) (1982-1989) was a voluntarily run feminist collective which campaigned against sexism and stereotyping of women in the media. It grew out of a previous organisation, Alliance for Fair Images and Representation in the Media, (AFFIRM), which was established in 1977. WMAG dissolved itself in 1989 due to lack of support. The organisation felt that the reason for this was that they had a negative mission, i.e. they campaigned against an issue instead of promoting a positive viewpoint. Meetings were held fortnightly and a newsletter was produced six times a year.

Alliance for Fair Images & Representation in the Media (AFFIRM) (1977-1982) was established in Mar 1977, its main objective was the 'positive representation by the media of the activities and aspirations of women in all their variety as individual human beings'. It aimed to abolish: 1) Reporting that mentioned a woman's personal appearance, age, marital status or lifestyle, where these were irrelevant; 2) The marketing of women as sexual objects; 3) The allocation of domestic matters, child care and nurture and the qualities of patience and tenderness to a mythical 'women's and girls' domain'; 4) The allocation of political, economic, scientific and technical matters and the qualities of energy, initiative and courage to a mythical 'men's and boys' domain'; 5) The condition of children to accept such stereotypes; 6) Language that implied that men were the norm to which women were an exception; 7) Words that belittled and trivialised women, such as girl, bird, chick.

The organisation retained its name until [1982] when it became known as the Women's Media Action Group.