Women's Magazines

Women's Magazines

The book Women's Magazines 1940-1960 gives us a good image into what the daily life of women in these era's was like. Their were hero's like Rosie the Riveter, that told you to be pretty, but strong. Then there was the ideal women who was a perfect entertainer and always dressed accordingly. The magazines were also littered with what would today be considered offensive advertisements for items like vacuums and panty hose. The magazines primarily advertised domestic goods and were a way of oppressing women without their being aware of it. Most magazines were run and edited by men who decided what should be written and what advertisements should be used. The deepest issue they get into is that of war, and whether or not America should become involved. But this issue is quickly put to the side when more important things like how to wear your uniform or make your husband more successful.

In an article from Ladies Home Journal titled "Women and War," the author audaciously says, "I believe that the whole question of war and peace is a women's question, and we can decide it as we will. If the thirty-seven million women of the United States should will not to go to war on a particular occasion, there should be no war." (p 31) This would be very motivating for women, to assign that much power to them, if the author did not finish up her thought with, "since not all of us are given to thought."

Many articles focus on how to be a good wife. One gave suggestions to women on how she could please her husband. Before her husband came home from work, she was expected to have dinner ready and on the table. She was also anticipated to prepare herself by putting make up on, doing her hair, anything that could make her look refreshed upon his arrival. Not only was she to pamper herself, but she was supposed to pamper her children, whether it be giving them a bath or changing their clothes. Since she was a housewife, she was to insure the house was spotless. The noise level was to be minimized. It was the women's responsibility to keep the marriage together, not the mans. He had to work. Articles like, "Making Marriage Work" and "How to Help Your Husband Get Ahead" helped with those problems.

Women had to remember that their husband's just spent a long, hard day at work. If he wasn't present, she would have no source of income and therefore would be at a state of financial ruin. Before the war women did not have very many opportunities of employment, and after the war they were encouraged to return to the home. Women's working was becoming the cause of teenage delinquency. In "Mothers...Our Only Hope" a desperate J. Edgar Hoover begs the parents to raise their children well, and if not absolutely necessary for financial means, the mother should stay at home. (p 45)

Women's roles were confined to a small list of responsibilities. As a result, they were seen as a minority. Society convinced women that they weren't capable of performing any work outside of the home. They were to stay home to cook, clean, take care of the children, and any other aspect involving the home. This was their sole responsibility. There wasn't anything else they were allowed or expected to do.

It had been implicitly preached to the woman of these eras that men and women were not equal intellectually. These ideologies held not only be men were being reinforced as early as 1912 when good housekeeping published "A Prophecy of the Future" by Thomas A Edison called the women of the future. It foreshadowed a day when a housewife should be "neither a slave to servants or herself a drudge"