ABSTRACT
American women's magazines have consistently been charged with playing a central role in the oppression of women. The history of these magazines is closely tied to the rise of modem capitalism, and their success as national media was clearly made possible by their reliance on national advertising. Feminist historians have identified several ideological propositions, attributed to the social requirements of capitalism, which have circumscribed the roles available to women in the United States (sec for example Winship 1978; McCracken 1993). These feminists typically argue that women's magazines have articulated these tightly prescribed roles for over a hundred years. These role restrictions are said to infect many domains, specifying gender role requirements from motherhood to consumer behaviour. To most feminists the role of the women's magazines in the oppression of women under capitalism appears congenial (Friedan 1963). To them, the political necessity' to overthrow both capitalism and its powerful ideological apparatus, in This case, women's magazines, seems unambiguous.
