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Ms. Magazine

Feminist Magazine

Gloria Steinem (L) and Patricia Carbine, cofounders of Ms. Magazine, May 7, 1987 — Gloria Steinem (L) and Patricia Carbine, cofounders of Ms. Magazine, May 7, 1987. Angel Franco/New York Times Co./Getty Images

History & Culture

By

Jone Johnson Lewis

Updated on July 03, 2019

Dates:

first issue, January 1972. July 1972: monthly publication began. 1978-87: published by Ms. Fondation. 1987: bought by Australian media company. 1989: began publication without ads. 1998: Published by Liberty Media, operated by Gloria Steinem and others. Since December 31, 2001: owned by the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Known for: feminist stands. After changing to an ad-free format, became known as well for exposing the control that many advertisers assert over content in women's magazines.

Articles in the First Issue of Ms. Magazine

By Linda Napikoski

Editors/Writers/Publishers Include:

Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, Marcia Ann Gillespie, Tracy Wood

About Ms. Magazine:

Founded by Gloria Steinem and others, with a subsidy for the first issue from Clay Felker, editor of New York magazine, which had hosted an abbreviated issue of Ms. as an insert in 1971. With funding from Warner Communications, Ms. was launched as a monthly in the summer of 1972. By 1978, it had become a nonprofit magazine published by the Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication.

In 1987, an Australian company bought Ms., and Steinem became a consultant rather than editor. A few years later, the magazine changed hands again, and many readers stopped subscribing because the look and direction seemed to have changed too much. In 1989, Ms. magazine returned -- as a nonprofit organization and ad-free magazine. Steinem inaugurated the new look with a stinging editorial exposing the control that advertisers attempt to assert over content in women's magazines.

The title of Ms. magazine came from the then-current controversy over the "correct" title for women. Men had "Mr." which gave no indication of their marital status; etiquette and business practices demanded that women use either "Miss" or "Mrs." Many women did not want to be defined by their marital status, and for a growing number of women who kept their last name after marriage, neither "Miss" nor "Mrs." was technically a correct title in front of that last name.