Resisting change: Women's magazines' framing of workforce equality and abortion, 1966 to 1973

This study explores women's magazines' coverage of sex discrimination in the workplace and the legalization of abortion--two issues that were crucial to the U.S. women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s. A textual analysis of McCall's and the Ladies Home Journal from 1966-1973 was performed to identify the framing processes involved in coverage of the two issues. Women's movement framing of workplace equality and abortion is discussed as well. Findings showed that while the magazines' expressed an awareness of the fact that women were entering the workforce in large numbers and that abortion was moving from a socially unacceptable and immoral procedure to a legal right of all women, they never fully supported these changes in women's lives. The magazines instead stuck to the pleasure-generating formula that focused on beauty, food, and relationships, thereby marginalizing the women's movement and its key issues.