A Woman's Place: Challenging Values in 1960s Irish Women's Magazines

(Hardback)

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Description

This book explores representations of the domestic in Irish womens magazines. Published in 1960s Ireland, during a period of transformation, they served as modern manuals for navigating everyday life. Traditional themes dating, marriage, and motherhood dominated. But editors also introduced conflicting voices to complicate the narrative. Readers were prompted to reimagine their home life, and traditional values were carefully subverted. The domestic was shown to be a negotiable concept in the coverage of such issues as the body and reproductive rights, working wives and equal pay. Dominant societal perceptions of women were also challenged through the inclusion of those who were on the margins widows, unmarried mothers, and never-married women. This book considers the motivations of editors, the role of readers, and the influence of advertisers in shaping complex debates about women in society in 1960s Ireland.

Author Bio

Ciara Meehan is Reader in History at the University of Hertfordshire