04/14/2023
By Kate Stone Lombardi
I collect old magazines. Since I write semi-regularly for Good Housekeeping, I was particularly thrilled to come across this November, 1930 issue.
It’s a veritable wealth of great material, particularly the ads. One asks, “Is he still the man you married?” and goes on, “Do you notice a little too much droop in his shoulders? Is he inclined to be just a little irritable when the soup isn’t quite as hot as it might be…when the children are just a trifle too exuberant…or when he can’t find the evening paper?” The solution: Post Bran Flakes will soon endow him with new vigor and enjoyment of life! It also turns out you can wash your window shades, according to an ad from DuPont, but let’s get to the magazine’s editorial pages, which swing decidedly feminist.
I particularly enjoyed an article titled, “The Men We Elect.”
Keep in mind women had only had the right to vote for 10 years when this was published. The author, a woman, writes: “It can not fail, to say the least, to be shocking to the sentiments of the high-minded citizen that the day has arrived when the conduct of law-making bodies in this country have become a subject of light jest by press and people, and often, indeed, of caustic criticism amounting almost to scorn.”
Imagine if she could have foreseen our current state of politics.
The writer goes on to acknowledge that Congress has examples of great statesmanship and in “every state legislature may be found public servants whose mental caliber and moral fiber have been tried by fire and not found wanting.” Alas, she has also witnessed “discussions develop into undignified personal bickering totally unrelated to any measure before the house for consideration.” As for the Senate, “the people’s business waited as distinguished members indulged in vitriolic wrangling over the relative merits of men whose names public gossip had advanced as potential candidates for presidency.”
Herbert Hoover was president at the time. He would be succeeded by Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
Her analysis of public policy then goes on for more than 5000 words. In the end, she comes up with this: “Men from time immemorial generously have credited women with superior spiritual qualities and a keen sense of spiritual values. If indeed they are entitled to that high estimate, how vastly elevating and wholesome an influence may they wield in legislative halls, and through the employment of those faculties influence beneficently the laws of the land!”
Well, we now have women serving in the House and the Senate, but 93 years on, we’re still waiting on our first female president.
Next I am going to read “300 Great Women” – part of a contest run by the magazine to name the greatest 12 living American women – “native-born or naturalized.” The disconnect between the adds and the editorial content is striking.