ABSTRACT
Today there is a well-known, comical stereotype of the ways in which women’s magazines and adverts used to address women as simpering housewives whose dream was to impress their authoritative, working husbands by using the latest kitchen accessory or washing powder. The advice offered to women was not about how to fulfil their own potential, but was instead focused on bringing happiness to their family. Unlike some stereotypes, this one is based on reality: these mags and ads really did exist. (Lifestyle magazines for men, incidentally, did not really take off until the 1990s, and so this book does not contain a parallel historical section about magazines for men – but see the discussions of modern men’s magazines, pp. 152-180).
