Women are now taking themselves seriously
and women’s interests are much more profound than how to make meatloaf 12 new ways.
The 1970s were difficult for female journalists
who wanted to write about more than fashion or recipes.
I would try to write about the mayor, and they would say,
“No, you can write about the wife of the mayor.”
And perhaps the low point was writing an entire article about textured stockings.
The solution? A magazine owned and written by women.
Gloria Steinem is editor of Ms. A feminist campaigner and writer,
she was one of the founders.
It started in desperation I think because
there were just a great many women writers and editors
who didn’t feel that they were working on magazines that they read.
It was clear there was no other way that we could be honest about women's experience.
Steinem initially suggested starting a newsletter
We were a group of women writers sitting in my living room
trying to figure out how to get out the writing that we cared about.
And Florence Kennedy, a wonderful lawyer, outrageous woman, said:
“Nobody reads newsletters. How about a magazine?”
We then started to try and raise money which turned out to be impossible.
Everybody said: “No you’re crazy and magazines don’t make money.”
The only thing that enabled us to
demonstrate that women really did want this kind of magazine
was that New York Magazine gave us enough money to put out a test issue.
Clay Felker, the editor of New York Magazine, his first idea was that
he would do an article about help at home, which he thought somehow would cure
the need for a women's movement if women had help raising their children.
But we explained that it was way more diverse in its goals than that.
Ms. began as a supplement to the successful New York Magazine
and sold so well that a preview issue in its own right was put out
on newsstands across the United States. In spite of gloomy predictions that most
American women just wouldn’t be interested, the 300,000 copies printed sold out in eight days.
We put Wonder Woman on the cover as a colossus striding through a city,
distributing food with one hand and stopping war and bombs with the other.
We’re here to announce our determination to
stand together in defence of a woman’s right to abortion.
Ms. covered issues like equal rights, domestic violence and...
abortion, which was illegal in 30 of America's 50 states.
Ms. was intended to take feminism into the glossy mainstream
with articles covering everything from power to finances, body image to violence.
Alice Walker wrote for it, so did Maya Angelou, Kate Millett, Doris Lessing
and so did Steinem herself contributing some of the wit and edge
that she believed essential in getting the message across.
We got stuffed mail bags of letters, which I knew from writing for other
women's magazines was very unusual. Women readers seemed to feel this was a
kind of personal note to them, and they responded personally.
It is difficult to express the sense of exhilaration I experienced upon finding in print
the ideas which have been smouldering in my semi-rebellious soul for some 40 years.
It’s comforting to know that I am not alone.
For some time, the advertisers were rather less responsive
and though matters have improved, ads are still few and far between.
The single most difficult thing was to try to get advertising
because in women’s magazines the tradition was that the advertiser
came in next to an article praising the product
so there would be a shampoo ad next to haircare. And we weren’t doing that.
Ms. is now run by the non-profit Feminist Majority foundation.
The foundation of this magazine and makes it different from others
is that it simply considers that women are human beings.
That doesn’t sound very revolutionary, but it is
because the other magazines are still arguing about it.