To determine what messages women found in magazines regarding their roles in society in the late eighteenth century, a study analyzed three magazines: "The Ladies Magazine" (1792-93), "The American Magazine" (1787-88), and "The (Philadelphia) Weekly Magazine" (1798-99). All three featured a mixture of essays, verse, literary excerpts, foreign and domestic news, reports of births, deaths, and marriages, and other material. The study sought to determine if the publications portrayed women as political actors (much as the leading party newspapers of that era were doing), how they defined women's role, and if they challenged conventional wisdom on women's place. The analysis revealed that none of the magazines portrayed women as politically active in any meaningful way. Such discussion was infrequent and isolated, and when it did occur, the connection had to be inferred because of the vague nature of the commentary. Generally, the message in the magazine was that women's place was in the home where the primary goal was to be amiable and compliant. Most talk of women influencing men was framed in relation to the reformation of women's manners and keeping them happy at home. Although women's education was discussed at length, the education was only utilitarian and limited to prevent women from rising above their husbands in any way or neglecting their "natural" duties. Overall, these publications were preservers of the status quo, rather than challengers of it. (HOD)