Disconnection: Advertising and Editorial Content in the Housewives League Magazine (1913-1916)

Abstract

The editorial content of the Housewives League Magazine published between 1913 and 1916 provides an interesting parallel with the contemporary food movement. During the 1910s, the Housewives League, led by Mrs. Julian Heath, started a public campaign for “clean, sanitary, and wholesome food” in response to what they conceived to be unsanitary conditions on farms, in grocery stores, and in markets. Their campaign took them into the public sphere, even as they invoked their roles as housewives in the private sphere as their central identity. The League was instrumental in promoting what they called green or municipal markets, the equivalent of contemporary farmers’ markets. The members of the Housewives League used their identities as wives and mothers, as nurturers of the family, the home, and their accepted realm—the private sphere—to seek changes in the nation’s food system—a very public demand indeed. In seeking wholesomeness, they weren’t stepping out of their traditional boundaries. In demanding access to farmers’ markets, they were asserting their collective might as newly organized consumers—realizing the importance of united purchasing power. As this transformation, both in the public and private spheres was taking place, however, the disconnections between the editorial content of the Housewives League Magazine and the advertising copy became apparent, causing a rift among League members, leading to its eventual demise.