An organised women's movement first emerged in the middle of the nineteenth century. It campaigned for the right of paid labour and better education for women, for equal rights and for women's suffrage. After the women's suffrage had been introduced in 1919, the women's movement lost much of its momentum.

It experienced a strong revival in the 1960s, because women became aware that their place in society was still mostly defined in terms of being a mother and a housewife. The renewed women's movement was mostly focused on free abortion, equal pay for equal labour and on achieving a breakthrough in the antiquated division of care and labour between men and women. Just like many other social protest movements that became active in this age, the women's movement had no voice in the regular media.

Posters offered a cheap and effective way of communicating points of action to the greater public. The IIAV's collection of nearly 3800 posters offers an exceptional overview of the development of the Dutch women's movement throughout the twentieth century.