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Selling The "Professional" Housewife: Editorial Strategy In Ladies Home Journal 1905 And 1955, Amanda Ellington

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis compares the editorial strategies of the women's magazine Ladies' Home Journal in 1905 and 1955. Throughout the twentieth century, the. Journal rapidly became one of the first mass circulation magazines offering a newly affluent middle class low subscription prices supported by the advertisement of consumer products. It both reflected and sought to shape its readers' values, interests, and attitudes.

Throughout its history, beginning with its founding in 1879, the Journal advocated a conservative view womanhood, maintaining that women should feel fulfilled through their relationships with others, their domestic responsibilities, and their duties of childcare. As the culture changed, …