Re-evaluating the women’s pages
The State Journal-Register featured the above photo on its blog this week, along with the following information:
“It was a different era in 1958. Different enough, in fact, that newspapers frequently cordoned off “women’s news” from the rest of the paper in special sections.
Today’s photo comes from such a section in the Illinois State Register on March 13, 1958. Pictured is dental assistant Carol Kornfeld. Carol was the Register’s “Beauty of the Week,” said the headline below the picture. A note from the Register women’s page editor, Margaret Turnbull, says this is the second in a series. We’re not sure how long this tradition continued.
Other headlines from that day’s Register women’s section include, “Menu Tips and Tricks for the Working Wife,” “Women’s Group Names Hostesses for Reception” and “Sandra McKeever Becomes Bride of Jerry W. Beaver.” Yes, things have changed.”
There is no question that some women’s pages focused on tradition, physical beauty, etc. Yet, I wonder if there was some progressive content mixed in, too. That has been the case in so many newspapers that Lance and I have studied.
Another way of looking at this photo is to note that it featured a woman in the workforce. Maybe this served as an important role model for a young reader.
