I have an article on Culture11.com today called “Ghosts of Christmas Past.” The teaser? “The evolution of Good Housekeeping shows that much has changed for women over the past 50 years — but not always in the way people imagine.”
For the article, I compared Good Housekeeping magazines from 1958 and 2008. The article is based on the December issues, but I also looked through the November issues just to make sure my thesis still held. Here’s the gist: “Reading the [1958 issue] is like visiting a lost civilization, in which women were obsessed with domesticity, but less so with their children, and time really didn’t matter — an equation that, fifty years later, has been thoroughly reversed.” Give it a read and let me know what you think!
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Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio, 2010) and Grindhopping: Build a Rewarding Career without Paying Your Dues (McGraw-Hill, 2007). She is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors, and her work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Scientific American, Wired, The American, Portfolio and other publications.
Write to her at lvanderkam at yahoo dot com.
Good piece on one aspect of the the shift in culture. However, there is an other explanation as to why there was nothing about parenting in the 1958 edition. In 1958 it was assumed that parents were competent and did not need help in this area.
As a teenager in the early 70s I recall spending a lot of time with my father on various projects around the house. At one point we disassembled and reassembled a car. Almost every weekend we would go shooting together. My sister spent a lot of time with our mother on those two day cooking projects. In fact, in late Autumn, the entire family would spend days canning. As a family we played a lot of board games. Of course, there was only one TV, so when we watched, we watched together. I do not believe we were all that unique.
Today, the editors seem to be saying “here is how to stay close to your teen, since obviously, you do not have a clue.” I am unclear that having a relationship “by the book”, as opposed to simply spending a lot of unforced time together, leads to warmer homes.
PS: You still need a preview option.