Poor cousin who came to stay: The well-established Mirror and the depression-era launch of the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly

  • Gavin Ellis
Keywords: New Zealand Woman's Weekly, the Mirror, women's magazine market, depression-era magazines, feminine identity

Abstract

This article places the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly magazine within the processes of change that were occurring in the years following the First World War when perceptions of the roles of women were changing and domestic consumerism was evolving. It contrasts the first issue of the magazine, launched on 8 December 1932, with that month’s edition of New Zealand’s largest selling home journal, the Mirror, to illustrate how its founders had identified a gap in the depression-era market in spite of their meagre resources.

References

Alsop, Peter, Gary Stewart & Dave Bamford (eds.), Selling the Dream: The art of early New Zealand tourism. Nelson: Craig Potton, 2012.

Barnett, Stephen. Those were the Days: A nostalgic look at the 1930s from the pages of The Weekly News. Auckland: Moa Publications, 1987.

Brookes, Barbara. A History of New Zealand Women. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2016

Dittmar, Helga. “How do ‘Body Perfect’ Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? – Factors and processes related to self and identity.” Journal of Social and
Clinical Psychology 28, no.1 (2009): 1-8.

Gibbons, P.J. “The Climate of Opinion” in Oxford History of New Zealand Second Edition edited by Geoffrey W. Rice. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1992, 302-332.

Gitlin, Todd. Media Unlimited. New York: Owl Books, 2002

Gough-Yates, Anna. Understanding Women’s Magazines: Publishing, Markets, Readerships. London: Routledge, 2003

Greenfield, Jill & Chris Reid. “Women’s magazines and the commercial orchestration of femininity in the 1930s: Evidence from Woman’s Own”, Media History 4, no.2 (1998) 161-174.

Hermes, Joke. “Media, Meaning and Everyday Life” in Cultural Studies 7, no. 3 (1993) 493- 506.

King, Michael. Penguin History of New Zealand. Auckland: Penguin, 2003

Lynch, Jenny & Joy McDougall in Janet Blackwell (ed) Woman’s Weekly: The First 60 Years. Auckland: Moa Beckett, 1992.

Macdonald, Charlotte. “Body and Self: Learning to be modern in 1920s-1930s Britain”, in Women’s History Review 22, no.2 (2013): 267-279.

Mulgan, John. Report on Experience. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2010.

Nolan, Melanie. “The Reality and Myth of New Zealand Egalitarianism: Explaining the Pattern of a Labour Historiography at the Edge of Empires”, Labour History Review 72, no.2 (2007): 113-134.

O’Brien, Denis. The Weekly. Ringwood (Vic): Penguin, 1982.

Olssen, Erik. “Towards a New Society” in Oxford History of New Zealand Second Edition edited by Geoffrey W. Rice. Auckland: Oxford University Press (1992): 254-284.

Rankin, Keith. “Unemployment in New Zealand at the Peak of the Great Depression”, a paper presented to the 1994 Conference of the Economic History Association of Australia and New Zealand. Retrieved from http://keithrankin.co.nz/NZunem1933/

Sinclair, Keith. A History New Zealand. Auckland: Penguin, 2000.

Sumner, David E. The Magazine Century: American magazines since 1900. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.

White, Cynthia L. Women’s Magazines 1693-1968. London: Michael Joseph, 1970.

Wright, Matthew. “Mordacious Years: Socio-economic aspects and outcomes of New Zealand’s experience in the Great Depression” in Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, 72, No. 3, September 2009.
Published
2017-07-01
How to Cite
Ellis, G. (2017). Poor cousin who came to stay: The well-established Mirror and the depression-era launch of the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. Back Story Journal of New Zealand Art, Media & Design History, (2), 45-61. https://doi.org/10.24135/backstory.vi2.21
Section
Articles