Mothers and Work in Popular American Magazines

by Kathryn Keller

Overview

Drawing on articles appearing in popular women's magazines from 1950 to 1989, this study documents changes in justifications of gender-based divisions of labor in the home and workplace. The study details the types of rationalizations that have been used to reconcile one new familial arrangement—two-parent workers with traditional gender values that promote men as breadwinners/fathers and women as housewives/mothers. The study reveals that changes have taken place only within the context of being a good mother. A serious analysis of women's burden of being both breadwinner and homemaker, therefore, has not occurred. Women's magazines serve as moral guides for their readers, providing justifications for both working and nonworking readers. They rely heavily on experts to provide personal direction to their readers. This work is in the same vein as Susan Faludi's Backlash, which examines the use of the media in the control of gender ideologies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313288647
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/14/1994
Series:	Contributions in Women's Studies , #13
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

KATHRYN KELLER is Administrative Director of the Substance Abuse Services program of the Institute for Behavioral Health, Morristown Memorial Hospital, New Jersey. She has published in the International Jourbanal of Politics, Culture, and Society.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
The 1950's: Hairline Cracks in the Traditional Mold
The 1960's: Years Of Questioning
The 1970's: Off the Pedestal—The Housewife; On the Pedestal—The Working Mother and New Father
The 1980's: Ideological Retreat to the 1950's versus Facing Economic Realities
Women's Magazines and the Changing Family Structure
References
Index