Photo by Steve Bott

“Placed in a situation of difficulty, they neither have a head to dictate nor a hand to help.” 

            This quote about "ladies" was drawn from an article of (believe it or not) Ladies Magazine.  In 1972 when ladies magazine was first founded it was the first publication to be aimed exclusively towards women, which at first thought is a good thing, hey even a triumph. Look the media is acknowledging women have interest! But that notion is soon squandered upon further inspection.  This magazine like many other publications of the time uses its influence to support and shape the roles and limitations of the female population.  This is why in Streitmatter (as do I) feels strongly that the media of the time did not simply stand by and whiteness the oppression of women, which would be bad enough, but in fact played an active role in slowing the momentum for women’s rights.
            Seneca Falls 1848 marks the start of the movement towards gender equality. This meeting was organized through an add in the news paper put out by Elizabeth Stanton, its ironic to think the very vehicle in which started the revolution would also try to stifle it. Relentless attacks were wielded against the “radical” women and men who fought for justice. First papers would diminish the movement, by calling it un-noteworthy. They would further push the idea of the uselessness of a woman if she was not a wife or mother, as a woman’s value is held in her place the home, so she is nothing without a home.  Then the attacks became more personally pointed and demeaning, The New York Sun referred to women in the movement at “Hermaphrodites” and the men as “Aunt Nancys.”  It’s like when you get into an unrelenting fight which somehow ends with “well you’re ugly!” What does that have to do with anything? Nothing but attacks on how the public viewed these brave men and women was the media's last resort to maintain some sort of power over these unruly women and misguided men.                                     

Photo by  Tony Fischer 

               
            Soon women were able to publish their own press. The Revolution was the first, but proved to be too extreme for many readers and dying out soon after publication. The most successful was a less radical Women’s Journal Founded by Lucy Stone. This journal was important because it may not have changed opinions, but it did create a feeling of unity and purpose among women in the movement.

The Foundation had been laid out for the following generation, now they simply had to act, and act they did. These ladies capitalized on the Progressive movement of the time and created the Women’s Political Union. This allowed them to have a political platform to actually influence change. By 1918 the 19^th amendment had been passed. Streitmatter sums up his views of media in regards to the movement by saying  “Had the Fourth Estate mobilized that power as a positive force in support of the Women’s Rights Movement, there’s no question that half the American citizenry would be granted its rightful voice in the democratic process far earlier than ultimately was the case.”