Women’s Magazine Trends & Lifestyle

Women’s magazine readers turn to their favorite titles for new styling inspiration, cooking tips, travel recommendations, and more. Whether you prefer quick-fix weeklies or glossy monthlies, these publications will keep you in the know.

Although critics of women’s magazines have derided them as vapid wastelands that promote unrealistic ideals of femininity, they have also promoted a sense of reader identification with a virtual culture mediated through the magazine.

Fashion

Women’s magazines have long reflected the changes in women’s lives and aspirations. Although the “seven sisters” of Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, and McCall’s retained a focus on domestic life, these publications and their competitors adapted to address new realities by adding articles and advertisements.

Magazines like Women’s Wear Daily and Cosmopolitan offer fashion tips, celebrity interviews, and news. Elle includes a mix of high-profile designers, runway photos, and buying guides for all styles from casual to couture.

Some magazines, such as Gal-dem and Girlkind, are ad-free and offer a space for discussions of identity and feminist politics, mapping collaborative routes to non-patriarchy. Other, such as the online zine, Experience Life, share practical information for women on healthy living and eating.

Beauty

Women’s magazines often aimed to help readers look and feel their best. They were filled with fashion tips, hair advice, and recipes for a healthy diet. Some featured articles that emphasized the importance of proper etiquette and good housekeeping.

By the early 20th century, however, beauty trends started to change. As the suffragist movement grew, more women began to demand a more radical role in their magazine content.

By the 1940s, several women’s magazines incorporated overtly political editorial matter into their pages. They fought for women’s rights and against sexual harassment and pushed advertisers to rethink their advertising policies. As a result, many women’s magazines ceased publication, but some have continued to thrive in the current era. These newer publications are known as zines – do-it-yourself, grassroots, feminist, and democratic in nature.

Health

In addition to fashion, beauty, and celebrity gossip, women’s magazines have historically included significant health content. While the content is often at odds with traditional biomedical accounts of illness, many women’s magazine articles are personal narratives that examine the meaning and experience of a woman’s health issue for herself.

These narratives are often at the heart of what makes women’s magazines special and a trusted resource for many readers. In the early twentieth century, for example, women’s magazines chronicled the impact on a housewife of improved technologies like washing machines and electric irons.

Women’s magazines also feature workout guides, nutrition advice, and recipes, women’s health news, and do-it-yourself tips for a well-rounded healthy lifestyle. Many of these publications also offer e-commerce and events to engage with their readers in a more interactive way.

Home

Whether on a hunt for fashion inspiration, or cooking aides, women’s magazines offer a rich blend of the serious and non-serious. The more “serious” stories often tackle important issues like the Feminine Mystique or pill coverage while the lighter fare includes everything from recipes to ab workout tips.

Historically, magazine editors have tried to accommodate the changing interests of women. For example, the Seven Sisters sought to aide women who negotiated their double day by providing them with patterns for sewing, articles on Paris fashion and sheet music for the piano. Later, as Upton Sinclair bemoaned in his muckraking study The Brass Check (1920), magazines struggled to please both readers and advertisers. Editors were afraid to address controversial topics for fear of alienating the readers they were trying to attract.

Travel

With global travel restrictions and cramped work-from-home arrangements, many women are eager to get out of their comfort zone and reconnect with family and friends. As such, micronations, or short trips to explore local destinations without the added stress of work, are popular among women travelers.

Women are also seeking ways to give back during their travels, and voluntourism is gaining traction. Whether it’s learning a new skill to support a community or embarking on a volunteer project, these experiences are giving women more meaningful and empowering adventures both at home and abroad.

From the real story behind reality TV stars to celebrity news, Grazia delivers authentic and thought-provoking content. It’s a magazine for women that never disappoints. This publication was started by the Apparel, Events, and Hospitality (AESHM) department at Iowa State University, making it an ideal choice for students looking to get involved with publishing.