Good Housekeeping magazine was founded in 1885 in the United States by Clark W. Bryan, whose stated goal was the creation of "perfection . . . in the household." When the British version of the journal was launched in 1922, its advertising promised, "infinitely more than a magazine—a New Institution, destined to play an important part in the lives of thousands of women." For over a century, Good Housekeeping has been just such an institution. The magazine offers advice and advertises products to help housewives run their homes, although some critics feel that the magazine is outdated because it assumes that only women do housework.

Good Housekeeping was part of a wave of women's magazines that emerged in the early twentieth century to glorify housework and to encourage women to stay in the home. Working-class women were leaving their jobs as household servants for factories, forcing middle-class women to learn...