Essay - Women's Magazines 1693-1968 by Cynthia L.White

This book was referenced in 'Inside Women's Magazines' by Janice Winship as a good source of historical overview and analysis. It's discusses a wide range of magazines coming from the very first in 1693 to trends in the 1960s. The book is slightly dated in its view as it was published in 1970, however this means it has an accurate and unclouded view of the magazines at the time.

First Experiments in Publishing for Women

• 'The publications characteristic of this period was entirely individual in their approach. Intended primarily 'to amuse and instruct' the female reading public, their contents were determined more by the caprice of the author than by any objective estimate of the requirements of the women reader.' pg 23
• The Ladies' Mercury set out to answer any questions they were sent, answers to 'all the most nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage behaviour, dress and honour of the female sex, whether virgins, wives or widows.' - run by a man, so potentially biased? Intimate problems were aired which was unusual for the time.
• Growth in female reading public at the turn of the century (1700) due to increased leisure forced upon upper and middle-class women by economic changes which reduced domestic tasks to a minimum. pg 24 Domestic servants were also becoming literate due to improved conditions.
• The Ladies' Diary made in 1704 by John Tipper who was determined that the contents of his diary should reflect 'what all women ought to be - innocent, modest, instructive and agreeable', an approach quite different to modern magazines (modern being the 1960s at the time of writing.) pg 25. The magazine did contain mathematical questions until 1707 when it was revised for cooking recipes.
• The Visitor created a magazine that was filled with knowledge for women, the Editor had high regard for female intellect and even called out a previous editor who had masqueraded as a man. pg 27
• Goodwill made a magazine called The Ladies' Magazine that whilst discussing crime, riddles, play reviews etc, also talked about the vulnerability of the female sex. 'It is the topical interest of such publications as Goodwill's which makes them unique in the history of publishing for women.' as many magazines already did this, but not ones aimed at women. pg 29-30 

The book also interestingly had a quiz from the 1950s about being the 'perfect housewife', it could definitely be something interesting to study further for practical work.