Marching to a Different Drummer. Military Women in American Popular Magazines, 1975-1985.

This thesis examines the medias image of women serving in the American armed forces through a qualitative content analysis of popular American black, general-interest, specialized, womens and news magazines from 1975 to 1985. It was constructed to examine the amount and subject of the coverage, as well as to determine stereotypical presentations. Results indicate that women in the military did receive consistent coverage throughout the period however, there was considerable variation within the magazines content which reflected their perceptions of the issues, with news magazines providing the broadest coverage. The majority of coverage in black, general-interest and news magazines was event-induced, increasing significantly to coincide with key events within military history. Coverage in womens and specialized magazines tended to reflect circumstances arising from the events rather than the events themselves. Overall, the coverage was not as stereotyped as expected however, the tendency to discuss womens marital status or personal life was present in black and general-interest magazines and in some womens magazines. Coverage was not representative of womens military service with its large emphasis on women officers and women serving in non-traditional positions.