Breward writes that the journals “not only encouraged the act of public buying, but engaged the reader in a form of private surrogate shopping. For the 3d. price of a journal, women bought the opportunity to peruse a fantasy world which released them from the immediate pressures of home.”

The magazines pushed their own form of male dominance—the idea that women should dress to please men—as well as the emerging notion of consumerism as a route to happiness. But they also offered a vision of freedom and independence that is still part of the appeal of today’s women’s magazines.