First Advisor

Michael Clark

Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English and University Honors

Department

English

Language

English

Subjects

Betty Friedan, New Woman, women’s magazines, twentieth-century American culture, Edward William Bok, mass media

DOI

10.15760/honors.1842

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, magazines were becoming increasingly available to the middle class. Throughout the 1890–1930s, the industry put forth an entire new iteration of publications that came to be popular with female readers. One of the most successful publications from this period, The Ladies' Home Journal, distinguished itself through its strong editorial presence on the page. The editors of the Ladies' Home Journal intended to create a "traditional" female identity that reflected domesticity in the journal, which countered the rising notions of the New Woman. Simultaneously, the publication aimed to create an educational product with a diverse range of content. The Ladies' Home Journal had to occupy the space between creating intellectual content for women and contesting the New Woman.

In her foundational second-wave feminist book The Feminine Mystique (1963), Betty Friedan criticized the rise of conservatism and domestic gender roles in these magazines. Friedan compared 1930s women's magazines to those of the 1950s, claiming that the new magazines no longer represented women's desires. However, other scholars have asserted how women's magazines—specifically the Ladies' Home Journal—had been perpetuating domestic gender ideology since their foundation. This conflict between intention, content, and message led to a confused product: both creating and contesting the New Woman.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44775

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