Throughout their history, women's mass circulation journals have played a major role in the lives of millions of American women. Yet the women's magazines of the early 20th century were quite different from those perused by women today. This book looks at changes that occurred in these journals and offers insight into these changes. Business forces formed a key shaping mechanism, tempered by individual editors, readers, advertisers, technology, and cultural and social forces.

Founded in the second half of the 19th century, six titles became the largest circulators--"Ladies Home Journal," "Good Housekeeping," "McCall's," "Pictorial RevieW," "Woman's Home Companion," and "Delineator." Capturing the interest of readers and advertisers, these journals published reliable service departments, fiction, and investigative reporting; however, competition eventually bred editorial caution. This, coupled with the depression of the 1930s, led to a narrowing of content and the beginning of Betty Friedan's feminine mystique. After World War II, the journals faced competition from television. The women's liberation movement and women's entry into the work force also brought changes.

The most comprehensive bibliography available on historical sources for popular women's magazines, this work fills a niche among existing annotated bibliographies on journalism history. Compiler Mary Ellen Zuckerman focuses on a wide range of topics, providing primary as well as secondary sources from 1792 to 1960. Descriptive and analytical annotations are supplied for each entry. Drawing from 12 years of research on the subject, Zuckerman orients the reader with an introduction to the history of women's magazines in the United States and a historiographical review of sources in the field. Business, advertising, market research, content analysis, editors and writers, and images of women in the media are among the topics covered in the entries. The volume also features special sections on specific women's journals, exhaustive subject and author indexes, and descriptions of manuscript collections. This work is an important resource for professionals, students, and scholars in media, women's history, advertising, and business.