ABSTRACT
In May 1988, a picture of a women’s magazine called The New Woman appeared in The Times. Like many other women’s magazines of the period, a well-groomed, female model beamed cheerily out from its cover. Yet the rest of the magazine did not bear the hallmarks of a typical women’s title. To begin with, the woman on the cover was wearing a business suit, and in her hand she held her credit card. Over her shoulder was slung – somewhat incongruously – a bulging sports bag. In the woman’s arms was an over-sized, slightly grumpy, wriggling toddler. The cover lines were also unusual. ‘Does she want to gain ££££££s?’, they asked, and ‘Is she seriously glamorous or glamorously serious?’ ‘Does she think a nanny less expensive than a nervous breakdown?’, they wondered, or ‘Can she housetrain her high-flying husband?’ ‘When she gives a dinner party does she cook?’ ‘Is she fit (or fit to drop)?’ (Slaughter, 1988: 21).
