Fashion cents: the struggle for power in consumerist America, 1860-1940

As urban migration expanded throughout the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, a greater number of women entered the workforce. Predetermined hours for working meant that women now had predetermined hours for leisure, something that was hard to come by in the traditional female roles within the sphere of domesticity. As a result, women began to dominate spaces outside of the domestic sphere, such as department stores, as both workers and consumers. Female consumerism, then, necessitated the rise of the advertising industry, subsequently playing a major role in the creation of power struggles between sellers and female consumers. The female consumers' autonomy, found in ideas of natural beauty and personal style, was constantly pitted against department store curated ensembles and the ad industry's creation of an idyllic and desirable female image. Interestingly, the role of women as walking advertisements further complicates these dynamics. Thus, the turn of the twentieth century resulted in a symbiosis between the advertising industry and female shoppers: women spread the word about a company's product through their sociable habits, which subsequently helped and/or hindered the success of that product, while companies reaped the benefits and the drawbacks from the free advertising done on behalf of their indirectly-employed "employees."