Feminism, UK Women’s Magazines and the Women who Created Them, 1975-1992

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.