This final chapter takes a close look at the contribution that Woman’s Way and, once they started publishing in the second half of the decade, Young Woman and Woman’s Choice made to the campaign for women’s rights. Woman’s View, being ideologically non-political, is largely absent from this chapter. The editors of the other three magazines, however, sought to engage their readers, challenging them to become active citizens. Exploring coverage of issues such as working wives, equal pay and access to contraception, this chapter explores how the magazines further subverted traditional understandings of the role of women and their position in society. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that they helped maintain women’s issues between the two ‘waves’ of feminism. In light of Betty Friedan’s assertion that women were uncritical consumers of mainstream magazines, this chapter also considers the extent to which women engaged with the magazines’ campaign for equality and reform. Though not prompting as many responses as other elements of women’s lived experiences, the workplace and reproductive rights are both topics that exercised readers. Of course, the letters we see in the magazines are only snippets of the views held in broader society, but they nonetheless confirm an active readership. The correspondence that not only addressed the editor or staff writers but also fellow readers offers an insight into the complex debates that were happening in society at the time.
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