History of American Women’s Magazines

We’ve all seen Cosmopolitan, Ladies’ Home Journal, Seventeen and many other print magazines filled with fashion ads, relationship advice and makeup tips. In fact, it’s hard to imagine life without this reading material appearing on the newsstands and in your mailbox each month as consistently as a phone call from your best girlfriend.

Did you know that women’s magazines (or journals) have played an important role in American womens’ lives since 1792? Among the first magazines geared toward women in this country were The Lady’s Magazine and Repository of Entertaining Knowledge and Godey’s Lady Book which contained fashion news, etiquette tips and literary content. These early magazines also gave opportunities for female writers to get their voices heard in a mostly male-dominated society.

Today, the top-selling women’s magazine is Cosmopolitan which focuses mainly on relationships and the lives of career women. Founded in 1886, Cosmopolitan began as a family magazine filled with fiction. Some of Cosmopolitan’s early contributors included Edith Wharton, Rudyard Kipling, and H.G. Wells.

Nowadays, women can choose from several different women’s magazines with several different focuses. There are those that focus on health and fitness like Shape and those that focus on food like Cooking Light. Even though the shelves are stocked with magazines for women, new magazines are appearing all of the time.

O, The Oprah Magazine has not yet reached it’s tenth year. Founded in 2000, O, The Oprah Magazine is competing with magazines that have been present in women’s lives for decades such as Ladies Home Journal. O, The Oprah Magazine focuses on personal growth and provides women with advice on style as well as personal finance.

As you can see the history of women’s magazines is long and has many players.  We hope that Celebrating the Success of the Modern Woman will one day become an online favorite and a resource women will turn to.  What are your favorite women’s magazines?  What do you enjoy about them?

We appreciate your comments!

-Rachel

Sources:

http://www.allyoucanread.com/top-10-womens-magazines/

http://www.oprah.com/magazine/omagazine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitan

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=28646394