This book analyses how reproductive rights and sexual freedoms, the political sphere, women’s role in the workplace and sexual violence were positioned and depicted by three magazines with very different demographics: Spare Rib, Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Own.
The 1970s and 1980s were a time of enormous cultural shifts for women: The rise of the feminist Women’s Liberation Movement, ground-breaking equality legislation and greater reproductive freedoms impacted on most women’s lives in a plethora of ways. However, until now there has been little attention to how those changes were disseminated to and framed within women’s media. This is because most media of the period were run by men, for men and focused on men’s lives. However, within women’s magazines, the changes in women’s lives and feminism itself were framed, debated and contested.
This volume features unique interviews with the influential women who produced the magazines (Spare Rib, Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Own) and who give insights into the national and international events, ideologies and constraints which impacted on their content creation.
This book will be of great value to contemporary historians, students of gender and cultural studies, media scholars and those who are interested in finding out how feminism influenced their parents’ and their own generation.
By:
Sharon Maxwell Magnus
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 560g
ISBN: 9781032771755
ISBN 10: 1032771755
Series: Routledge Research in Gender and History
Pages: 206
Publication Date: 30 June 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. The Framing of the Feminine: The Historical Development of Women’s Magazine. 2. Standing Against a World of Men: Political representation, ‘strident females’, and ‘women’s issues.’ 3. Are you Liberated? Sex, Sexuality and Reproductive Rights 4. Having it All? Women in the Workplace. 5. ‘Not ‘Asking for it: Changing attitudes to Crimes Against Women.
Dr. Sharon Maxwell Magnus is Principal Lecturer in Mass Media at the University of Hertfordshire. She was an award-winning journalist for UK national publications, including newspapers and for a wide range of magazines. Her research interests are print and digital media, women’s media and prominent but neglected historical women. Recent work has been published in the Handbook of Magazine Studies (2020) and Transforming Magazines (2022).
Reviews for Feminism, UK Women’s Magazines and the Women who Created Them, 1975-1992: Glossy Cover or Cultural Shift?
Not only does this book document the recent history of women’s magazines and their role in our changing ideology and identity, it also provides invaluable insight into the social history of Gen X women born during a time of radical changes when feminist ideology experienced one of its broadest shifts. Many astute lessons can be drawn from this work. Developed through articulate research, it has evolved into a thoughtfully constructed narrative with verve and pace, culminating in an insightful narrative for historians, industry professionals and magazine enthusiasts. Indeed, Sharon Maxwell-Magnus has successfully bridged that impossible gap by developing a text for academics and professionals, each of whom can draw on those valuable, real-world examples documented within these chapters. Mary Hogarth, academic, media specialist and author of Business Strategies for Magazine Publishing (Routledge, 2018) and Writing Feature Articles (Routledge, 2019).
