Life Magazine- December 31, 1965

In this special holiday edition of Life the editors combined two issues in one to talk about the American woman and her achievements as well as her troubles. All of the articles were pertaining to woman and their effects on the work force as well as modern day households.

            One article entitled, “Women Are Wonderful” was written side-by-side another article “Women Are Misguided”. Phyllis McGinley wrote the first article and Cornelia Skinner wrote the second, creating two opposing views on women. The first article discussed how woman, contrary to popular belief, like each other and dress up for each others approval, talk over there problems, offer their sympathy, and exchange bread recipes. The writer even goes on to say that women are less fragile than men that they have sound, sturdy virtues that make them irreplaceable. The other article discussed how women are still waging a ridiculous war over feminism; an issue that the writer feels is dead. Women, she says, will never stop trying to prove themselves equal to men. The writer feels that women try to fault their accomplishment, which in turn makes women lose some of the delights and fulfillments of being a woman. 

            In the beginning of the magazine they showed pictures of American women; one in a plaid button-up, blue jeans, and holding a gun, another in the dessert of Arizona, a woman on her wedding day, and one in a cocktail dress out on the town. These were meant to preview not only the beauty of the women but the divers personalities and qualities of them.   Later on the issue, they show pictures of women from around the world in various cultures. The heading of the section was “Portraits give U.S. women basis for comparison” which I thought was interesting considering that the editors want American women want to compare themselves to other women from around the world. There are pictures of women from Hong Kong, Eurasia, Singapore, India, West Africa, Israel, Sweden, Italy, Paris, and Ireland. The introduction discussed how when men come back from tours of duty that they describe the lure of foreign women.  I think that its funny how this issue seems to be honoring and respecting women but this section is basically tell American women to step it up so the foreign women wont steal their men.

            The article that intrigued me the most was about women in the business world and how they have moved in masses to replace men in nursing, entertainment, assemblers, teaching, garment trades, and more. It stated that since 1950, when 16.5 million women held jobs, the number has shot up at a rate of a million a year. It goes on to state that now (1956) there are 22 million women at work, holding one third of all the jobs in the nation. Half of the women in the work force are married and most of them are still traditional fields for women. Women in the garment trade at a plant in Atlanta earn up to two dollars an hour. At that time the U.S. had over 400,000 active graduate nurses, and 100,00 student nurses, 835,000 women teachers in the school system, and Macy’s in New York during the Christmas season employed 2,270 permanent sales ladies.

            The article entitled “My Wife Works and I Like It” is an argument by Jim Magill that his wife’s full-time job is good for her, good for him, and food for their children. With her part-time job their family receives a second income, which is great for their budget. Jenny gets to feel independent and has made friends with people at work that she wouldn’t have met otherwise. Jim picks up Jenny after work and on their ride home they get a chance to talk without domestic distractions.