Life — February 2, 1928 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of This Life Magazine Page This page satirizes women's workplace issues and social customs of the early 20th century. The top cartoon shows a wife asking her husband about "calendar reform" — a historical movement to standardize the calendar. His comical misunderstanding (thinking the Pope came from their grocer) jokes about men's indifference to women's intellectual pursuits. The main article, "Better Working Conditions for Working Girls!," presents absurd "reforms" as satire: rules about saleslady attentiveness, telephone operators interrupting conversations, and waitresses wearing ear muffs. These ridiculous suggestions mock the actual poor conditions working women faced while highlighting how employers and society dismissed their legitimate grievances. The cartoons below ("The Chorus Girl Makes a Left Turn," "The Strenuous Life") continue satirizing social expectations and economic precarity affecting working women and the working class generally.