Feminism and women’s magazines: a discourse analysis of women’s identities and (partner) relationships as articulated in two Flemish women’s magazines of the twentieth century’s sixties and seventies.

The popularity of women's magazines, together with their great impact, warrants an academic interest into the way these media articulate and represent women's identities and (partner) relationships. As we focus on two Flemish women's magazines from the years 1963 and 1973, we try to explore a possible correlation between Second Wave Feminism and the way women and their (male) partners are represented in women's magazines of the sixties and seventies of the previous century.
Inspired by the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), we use Halliday's transitivity analysis to examine the processes through which women are represented in their relationships. That way, we seek to find an answer to the following research questions: what is Second Wave Feminism and how does it relate to the content of these women's magazines? How and to what extent does the articulation of women's identity and women's (partner) relationships in these magazines reflect, complement or contradict evolutions in the societal position of women?