Women's Magazines Ripple Effect
The Ripple Effect of Women's Magazines
The rise of women’s magazines from 1860 to 1920 had a lasting effect on society and consumer culture in the time period. Throughout these years, the subjects in magazines greatly evolved from focusing on “women’s roles” and home life to fashion and beauty. The Ladies’ Mercury is commonly recognized as the first women’s magazine to ever be published in history. Despite the word “magazine” not actually being used until 1732, this work of writing was first published in 1693. The Ladies’ Mercury gave women advice for relationship problems pertaining to their husbands and love interests, siblings, beauty problems, and many other similar issues. Despite only lasting four issues and being published by a man, this was still a major stride towards women having things of their own. This was not the first magazine to ever exist, but it was still the first time that women had a magazine of their own. This magazine started the ripple effect on society that affected the women living at that time. The Ladies’ Mercury set the standard of publishing and writing for the women of the future, but there was still a long way to go.
Many decades passed with no major innovations or changes in this specific industry. The first time that something new and important happened was in the year 1852. The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine was published, and it stopped magazines from being an elite product for only extremely wealthy and upper class women. It was targeted at the average, middle-class women that was often both a mother and a wife. This magazine’s tagline was “your life made easier, every day”. This magazine had a “problem page”, where readers could vent and share their problems and writers would write back to them, hoping to resolve the issues they were dealing with. The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine focused on home life, with columns on pets and cookery, but its main focus was something that would become a massive industry in the future- fashion.
Magazines evolved with the women at that time, focusing on fashion as it gave them a space for them to use their creativity in a field with other women. The Englishwoman's Journal campaigned for women to have “a legal, economic, and social identity outside of the home”. This new mindset for women allowed them have “separate spheres” from men and to become more and more interested in fashion. The Guardian states that “By the 1860’s each issue featured a coloured plate showing anatomically impossible young women crammed into the latest Parisian fashion”. These now-fashionable magazines included paper patterns, templates, and instructions on how to recreate the looks featured at home for a fraction of the cost. The goal of this was to flatter the reader’s sense of themselves- but it often ended up doing the opposite. These magazines made women unhappy with their lives, which encouraged them to buy more products, thinking that this would make them as perfect as the women featured on the pages they were reading. According to America's History for the AP Course, “People don’t buy things to have things… they buy hope- hope of what your merchandise will do for them”. This mindset led to the increase of consumer culture.
With advances of technology, printing, and paper-making in this time period, magazines were becoming more common and easily-accessible than ever. This resulted in an "explosion of production" Magazines had spread to the United States by the turn of the century. This spread to many different industries, such as photography. Magazines had originally consisted of woodcuts and paper cutouts, but with new 20th century technology, actual photographs were now being used. In 1916, the first American fashion publication imported into Britain for the first time. American magazines often tied the ideals of freedom and independence into the writing that was being featured. This was a major step forward because at the time, nearly all resources that America used had come from Britain. Now, Americans were shipping their product to Britain.
The "Golden Era" of magazines was from the late 19th to early 20th century. In this time period, magazines consisted of news, arts, and periodicals detailing many different subjects and niches. The women’s fashion industry was only one of them, but it caused major changes in several different industries because of the ripple effect that it created. Magazines greatly affected and changed society at the time because of how revolutionary they were for their time period. Magazines that were targeted at women quickly became extremely popular, leading them to become mass-produced. This impacted the printing and photography industry in big ways. Magazines also started the rise of consumer culture because of the way they persuaded readers to buy the products that were being advertised at the time. All of these features of early publications of magazines have led this industry to where it is today.
Many decades passed with no major innovations or changes in this specific industry. The first time that something new and important happened was in the year 1852. The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine was published, and it stopped magazines from being an elite product for only extremely wealthy and upper class women. It was targeted at the average, middle-class women that was often both a mother and a wife. This magazine’s tagline was “your life made easier, every day”. This magazine had a “problem page”, where readers could vent and share their problems and writers would write back to them, hoping to resolve the issues they were dealing with. The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine focused on home life, with columns on pets and cookery, but its main focus was something that would become a massive industry in the future- fashion.
Magazines evolved with the women at that time, focusing on fashion as it gave them a space for them to use their creativity in a field with other women. The Englishwoman's Journal campaigned for women to have “a legal, economic, and social identity outside of the home”. This new mindset for women allowed them have “separate spheres” from men and to become more and more interested in fashion. The Guardian states that “By the 1860’s each issue featured a coloured plate showing anatomically impossible young women crammed into the latest Parisian fashion”. These now-fashionable magazines included paper patterns, templates, and instructions on how to recreate the looks featured at home for a fraction of the cost. The goal of this was to flatter the reader’s sense of themselves- but it often ended up doing the opposite. These magazines made women unhappy with their lives, which encouraged them to buy more products, thinking that this would make them as perfect as the women featured on the pages they were reading. According to America's History for the AP Course, “People don’t buy things to have things… they buy hope- hope of what your merchandise will do for them”. This mindset led to the increase of consumer culture.
With advances of technology, printing, and paper-making in this time period, magazines were becoming more common and easily-accessible than ever. This resulted in an "explosion of production" Magazines had spread to the United States by the turn of the century. This spread to many different industries, such as photography. Magazines had originally consisted of woodcuts and paper cutouts, but with new 20th century technology, actual photographs were now being used. In 1916, the first American fashion publication imported into Britain for the first time. American magazines often tied the ideals of freedom and independence into the writing that was being featured. This was a major step forward because at the time, nearly all resources that America used had come from Britain. Now, Americans were shipping their product to Britain.
The "Golden Era" of magazines was from the late 19th to early 20th century. In this time period, magazines consisted of news, arts, and periodicals detailing many different subjects and niches. The women’s fashion industry was only one of them, but it caused major changes in several different industries because of the ripple effect that it created. Magazines greatly affected and changed society at the time because of how revolutionary they were for their time period. Magazines that were targeted at women quickly became extremely popular, leading them to become mass-produced. This impacted the printing and photography industry in big ways. Magazines also started the rise of consumer culture because of the way they persuaded readers to buy the products that were being advertised at the time. All of these features of early publications of magazines have led this industry to where it is today.
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