Housewives' Choice - Women as Consumers Between the Wars
Catherine Horwood looks at how the launch of Good Housekeeping in the UK 75 years ago heralded a new image of domestic activity.
In March 1922, America's leading domestic magazine was launched in Britain. Prophetically, publicity promoted Good Housekeeping as 'infinitely more than a magazine – a New Institution, destined to play an important part in the lives of thousands of women'. It was claimed that 'no magazine to compare with Good Housekeeping has ever been attempted in this country before'. Was this a fair claim? Did Good House- keeping indeed become a trend-setting 'institution' – or was it part of an inevitable growth industry as a sea of consumerism linked to household goods washed over women's lives?
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