The American Woman Series: Gender and Class in the Ladies' Home Journal,1897

Throughout 1897, the mass-circulation Ladies' Home Journal ran six full-page illustrations drawn by nationally known artist Alice Barber Stephens and collectively titled “The American Woman.” The series was among the first visual commentary on gender in a truly national mass medium. Its imagery framed larger debates about not only the proper place (literal and figurative) of American women, but also the economic and social aspirations of the “rising classes” in the United States. A rhetorical analysis of the series and its editorial context reveals the extent to which class and gender issues intersected in this era - and underscores the central role of mass media in public discussion of these emerging concerns.