This article reveals some key legal constraints on women in the 1960s and provides useful background information for all of the historical magazines. Vogue Money Q&A – regular column by Sheila Black, Financial Times journalist. Highlight the points that relate to social/ historical context in yellow; Highlight construction of female stereotypes in blue; Highlight points relating to the audience/ mode of address in green Select a highlight colour and then drag across the text you wish to highlight..


In the six months that I have been a small part of Vogue I have come to learn a lot about Vogue readers from their letters. Most of them confirmed things I already suspected. For example, I knew that they were intelligent (I mean, I've always been one myself). I knew that many of them were happily free of financial problems, that a number were definitely rich, and that there must be a fair few of those who have more taste than money.

The thing that has most surprised me is the number of women with money who admit that they have done no more with it than buy what they want and leave the rest in the bank……

Then there are the women who want to insure, borrow or invest without their husbands knowing about it. I am not going into the moralities of this. I can only say that, in British financial law, married women are never independent even if they are the chief breadwinners, and they have no chance of keeping their affairs completely private. Banks honour wifely privacy. But, in the end, comes that income tax return which has to be signed by the husband after all the details of "wife's income" etc. have been entered. And, in nearly all other financial transactions, married women have to bring their husbands in somehow. Sorry, but there it is.

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Write a paragraph outlining how the representation of women in the article reflects the social and historical context of the 1960s.