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Samuel Beeton - Founder and Creator of the "Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine"

The History of the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine

The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine was established in an age where most literary pieces revolved around men. This often would cause women to have a lack of interest in reading, since there were rarely ever any women. This opposition to reading all changed in 1812, when Samuel Beeton created the magazine with the help of his wife, Isabella. Together they published magazines that appealed to a female audience, which included a large array of topics such as taste, home, fashion, and many more Sam Beeton’s magazine was extremely successful in targeting women, specifically the younger middle-class. He achieved this success by filling the magazine with a plethora of topics that struck the interest of women of the era. The main topics included general news, correspondence with readers, French fashion plates, dressmaking paper patterns, designs for fancy-work, recipes, novels, and articles relating to topics of employment, education, as well as divorce and marriage (Diamond 6). The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazines success gave way for several other magazines. Some examples of these magazines included, “The Boy’s Own Magazine,” “Le Moniteur de la Mode, ”“The Queen,” and “The Young Englishwoman” (Diamond 6). Aside from the magazine’s immense success, some readers were slightly bothered with some sections, in particular the “feminist” aspects. This was due to the fact that feminists usually have a more radical view of their place in society. Women who read the magazine would get irritated with being associated with feminism issues. Another aspect of the magazine that caught the attention of readers was the monthly essay competitions. These competitions allowed women the opportunity to send in an essay on a set topic. One of the most frequent winners of these was Maria Susan Rye. Maria Susan Rye was a woman who consistently wrote for the Beeton’s magazine. She often raised women’s issues including employment opportunities and married women’s property (Diamond 7). This caught the attention of a feminist group, the “Langham Place Group,” which was a well known feminist group during this era (Diamond 8). This group was inspired by Maria’s writings in the magazine about employment opportunities and married women’s property and began the “English Woman’s Journal” (Diamond 7). Maria wrote for both the journal and the magazine and supported herself through her writings. In her writings, a common theme she brought up was the idea of domesticity. This topic included subtopics such as how people live and work, lifestyle, manners, food, clothing, building styles, account of wages and prices, and technological changes in agriculture, industry, transport, and warfare through the years (Diamond 9). She wrote for the magazine up until 1866. The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine came to an end in 1866 when Sam Beeton became bankrupt. He was forced to sell his journals and copyrights due to the Overend, Gurney & Co financial crisis (Moja). Aside from the sad ending to Beeton’s magazine, it was very influential during this time period and attracted attention from those that appreciated Maria Susan Rye’s debate on women’s issues, bridged the gap between women and feminist groups, and allowed for women to finally have literature that was specifically for them (Diamond 13).