Analysis of College Girls and Fashion Proportion in Mademoiselle, 1960-1974

Abstract

<p>The period of the 1960s and 1970s was a transitional era characterized by the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, ambiguous gender roles, and the increased use of recreational drugs. It was also a time marked by great changes for women, The approval of the oral contraceptive pill, the 1963 release of The Feminine Mystique, and President John F. Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the status of Women, which spoke to gender inequality, ushered in a second-wave of feminism. In addition to challenges, such as official legal inequalities, women gained greater opportunities, as a larger percentage of American women than ever before attended college and entered the labor force. During this period, young women in particular used appearance to express their identities and individuality. Pas researchers examined proportion of women's daywear and changes in females' roles from 1945 to 1995 in Vogue and found that the proportion of women's fashion was influenced by the increasing diversity and complexity of women's roles. Due to the great transitions of the 1960s and 1974, the researchers were interested in exploring how proportions were expressed in a magazine dedicated to college women during this time.</p>