The perfect lady dresses exquisitely but somehow comfortably, cures her children with homemade remedies, manages the household with precision, enjoys the latest art and books--and reforms the country. She bakes her own bread if the bakers go on strike, competes in archery, and if forced into economic straits learns photography. She also lives within her means, despite the dazzling array of goods offered in the journal's pages, for The Ladies finds nothing so offensive as class-climbing. This new lady remains as proper as ever but propriety gains a broader meaning: "Usefulness" includes forming groups to reform sanitation laws and agitating for suffrage. The Ladies attempts to ennoble traditional women's occupations and to provide "the sex" with expanded activities, in politics, sports, and employment, even as it retains a socially conservative outlook. Often the Ladies justifies women’s education and other new rights as better enabling women to serve their traditional roles as mothers and wives.
For the fashionable lady, see the fashion page.
For an anti-class-climbing discussion, see the journal's angry reaction to the Saturday Review's Fashion Screws.
Other excerpts:
On Striking
Objects of Desire
Jobs for Women
Domestic Hints
