Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 123

"Present Wherever Smart
Women Assemble . .
Images of the Housewife in
American Popular Press
Advertising
In the Nineteen Twenties
In January 1927 an ad for A & P stores appeared in Ladies' Home
Journal, a p>opuIar woman's magazine. A photo-engraving showed a
portrait of a fashionable woman in a fur collar and cloche hat. The
copy read:
Who is This Woman? She is present wherever smart
women assemble . . . the best department stores . . . in
shops of character everywhere. She is the sort of
shopper who is attracted more by value than by
price—and never sacrifices quality for the bargain
instinct. In brief, she is one of America's most
representative women-and her kind is responsible for
the popularity of A & P stores.^
The "new woman" in the A & P ad was the advertiser's
construction of the modem American housewife. Consumer habits had
changed significantly by the 1920s. More and more household
products were being produced in the factory rather than in the home.
New luttional brands meant that families in California could eat the
same breakfast cereal as families in Florida. Chain stores and mail
order made consumer goods available to most families throughout the
country while installment credit enabled even working class people to
buy appliances and cars. Increasingly, the consumer products market
was a national market which required national advertising.
Examining the images advertisers created to represent the 1920s
housewife can lend insight into the complex ways in which mass
media images, cultural norms, and changing personal expectations
interacted to construct the modem housewife.