women's magazines in 1950s

Woman's Weekly and Burda

Just remembered Nursery World, if that counts. We had that in the 1950s.

My mother, born in the 1930s, read Woman's Own and her mother read Woman's Weekly.

My mother was never a magazine reader but my grandmother and aunt were and read woman, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly. I know that my grandmother wrote letters to the magazines, usually with tips and had a few published. They were both great knitters too.
My Dad’s sister was more modern, a career woman and was a ‘She’ reader. When she died in 1977 I inherited a pile of back copies which I read avidly.

Grandma read She, Picture Post, Woman, Woman's Realm and Good Housekeeping, and anything with film star gossip. She would also buy the odd magazine with a knitting or sewing pattern she fancied. In the 60s she added Nova to the pile.

If it's any help, Great Nan read Grandma's cast offs , Peoples Friend and Woman's Weekly.

Mother read most of Grandma's magazines, then added Ideal homes and Homes and Gardens in the 60s.

There was a problem page by I think Mary Marryat ?

Mary Marryat Advises.

DM had quite a collection of paperbacks of the serialised romantic fiction which I happily worked through interspersed with my older brothers' extensive set of Alistair McCleans for balance.

a bit later, but in the 1960s my mum read Woman's Weekly, passed to her by another woman, I read it when I was 10+ I suppose - out of boredom, I had read all the books in our small village library and all the books in the house. It had chaste romantic fiction, some of which was serialised. Knitting patterns. Recipes, I suppose although no one bothered with those, we had the Bee-Ro book for baking and no one needed a recipe to cook chops/shepherds pie/hotpot. There was a problem page by I think Mary Marryat ? Which always intrigued me as both the problems and the advice given were often cloaked in euphemisms I couldn't fathom. There were sometimes answers to questions sent in but not printed which was even more intriguing. They said things like, Dear Anxious Wife, what you describe is certainly not normal. An understanding doctor may be able to help you and your husband.

I suspect this magazine was not much changed from the 50s as it was passed to us by a much older woman, and it struck me as old fashioned at the time.

My mother would occasionally buy The Lady and was much mocked by me and my brother.

I was born in the 1950’s and the agony aunt columns from then into the late 60’s were hilarious by modern standards. Or perhaps depressing is a better word - women with cheating and abusive husbands were firmly told to remember their marriage vows and put up with it.
There were articles admonishing women for letting themselves go to seed after marriage- they were exhorted to put on some lipstick before their husbands came home from work, and have his slippers and a drink ready. And not to pester him - he was to be allowed to unwind in peace while they cooked his dinner!

Woman's Own, possibly Woman's Realm and a nurses' magazine, I think Nursing Mirror.

Woman's Own was very unlike the modern version: it had features, fiction, recipes and I think knitting patterns, chat, practical housekeeping. No gossip or scandal; lots of practical stuff.

My mum had My Weekly delivered

Only one that I can remember:Readers Digest. It used to have some rather good short stories, one of which I read about a deranged baby sitter which was made into a movie starring Marilyn Monroe before she became mega famous.

Some rather questionable advice on this one.

www.gypsycreams.org/tag/problem-page/

It would be really interesting to see the Agony Aunt columns through the 50s, 60s and 70s.

I remember reading Evelyn Home, Anna Raeburn, Virginia Ironside in the 70s.

I don't know what date this Evelyn Home article is from but it's interesting reading.

I used to read Crawfie's column in the Woman's Own about the two princesses; the Royal Family cut her off completely after she started writing. Apparently she was heartbroken.

The Reader's Digest. I loved looking at our vintage copies from the 1940s onwards - the adverts were fascinating.

The women in my family had very little money to spend on themselves, they read the newspaper after the men had finished with it

Yes, but magazines, if they were acquired, were always passed on and around until they were in tatters!

I only knew one grandmother, she was deaf and couldn't read very well. I don't think she read for pleasure and I never saw her with a book, newspaper or magazine.
The women in my family had very little money to spend on themselves, they read the newspaper after the men had finished with it.

I'm now having happy memories of chaste romantic fiction (strictly no sex before marriage!), traybakes and knitting patterns

That was about it. There might have been a gardening column and I also remember a column from a pastor or priest in one of them. There were articles on 'The Royals', but never scandalous. Maybe a bit of fashion? Advice about being thrifty? Vague memories. The pages were softer and the colours duller.

The readers digest. Although I'm not sure it's quite a magazine as such.

I'm now having happy memories of chaste romantic fiction (strictly no sex before marriage!), traybakes and knitting patterns - I didn't learn to knit till later (grandpa did the knitting for our family, to his own designs) but maybe that's where I absorbed the elements of computer programming from.

Slightly later but my mother read She in the 60s and 70s. She was first published in 1956.

The 70s version of She was a far cry from the vapid rag it turned into.

And the True Crime ones! Bloody awful things, really gruesome!

Sorry, that was a bit snarky!

Math and physics textbooks.