The late 19th century saw the introduction of the first women’s page. During this period of explicit and unfiltered sexism, society believed that women had peanuts for brains. The evolution of women’s page has evolved over the years in response to need. A women’s page serves as a space to help each other and chart the way forward. Replacing the women’s page and the style section or using them interchangeably will only work to push women aside. A Style Section should not replace the women’s page because it addresses women’s issues in a male-dominated society. The women’s page will help women more, and their affairs will be well-addressed in all aspects of life.
Feminist issues are still worth talking about in our time. The discrimination against women might have reduced over the years, but all that was due to awareness being raised. There are still areas of society where sexism has not been fully addressed. Replacing the women’s page with style and fashion or using the two subjects interchangeably will only promote sexism because it communicates: “You are not that important, so we will give you the less important stuff.” While reading the newspaper, the style section is usually read for fun or not read. People want to read things that actually matter, something that impacts society at large, not “what am I going to wear today?”. In other words, women need a voice. The style section in any newspaper presents information that the public can do without, while the women’s page can actually help.
Some of the issues facing women and which the Feminist Movement has been trying to address are:
- Domestic Labor/Chores. It is not unlikely that you would find a woman letting go of her job to “take care of her family.” Man and wife might both be working a nine-to-five job, but the woman also will prepare food for the family, do the dishes and the laundry, prepare the kids for school and still “look nice” for the man. There should be an equal division of domestic labor between spouses or at least some agreement in the family setup concerning chores.
- The Media – Advertisements on modern televisions can subtly propagate sexist mannerisms. The media uses products widely used by society to promote stereotypic information to the masses. Few organizations are dominated by the male ego, which has an idea of what a “real” man should look like at the cost of displaying a lesser version of women.
A women’s page in a newspaper is a space where women can express themselves and communicate issues that concern them. Any other area in mainstream media has been saturated by males who know little to nothing about issues that affect women. In 2012, during the elections, a famous newspaper talked about Hillary Clinton’s pink lipstick and her sense of fashion as being off. Women have a voice and can contribute to society, thus emphasizing the women’s page rather than the style section.
The women’s page encourages women to speak out, thus benefiting women. Cultural practices have pushed women to the point where a large part of them believe that they belong at the back of the line. The frontiers of feminist women use the women’s page to encourage those women to come out and speak about issues facing them at the hands of chauvinistic men. In 1969, there was a transition from the women’s page to the styles section. The newspaper firms claimed they were “mixing things up” by bringing men into the women’s division to put more esteem on the women’s page. This move was during the rise of the feminist movement. Some women had not seen the significance of the women’s section in newspapers, which led to less readership by the masses.
The 1950s saw the first mention of women being involved with “real” issues (leadership). That would have caused a stirring, only that the only set of people who read the women’s page are the women themselves. The editors never paid much attention to what went into the women’s page – it was a male-dominated media space. The female editors found a way of airing women’s issues while still playing by the rules. These writers are the ones that changed the game in favor of women. Kimberly Voss maintained a blog (Women’s Page History) intended to correct the idea that the women’s page was fluff.
There has been a paradigm shift over the years as we have seen more men accepting the relevance of women and respecting their voices in society. The Women’s page might as well have been responsible for why we would have the next American President. Such platforms serve to open the eyes of the public. While men might say that they deserve a “men’s page,” it would be absurd in the sense that no male has been sidelined in the past, and society acknowledges men more than women. One might as well look at it like this, “we have seen what men can do, now let’s see what our counterparts can do.” The widely known saying goes, “what a man can do, a female can do better.” Women possess some great qualities, such as compassion and cautiousness, that will help make society a better place if given an opportunity. In conclusion, the women’s page will help better women at large, and their affairs will be well addressed.