Throughout the Cold War, Soviet citizens had limited access to US life and culture.
Amerika,
a glossy Russian-language magazine similar to
Life,
provided a rare exception. Produced by the United States Information Agency (USIA), America’s first peacetime propaganda organization,
Amerika
was used to influence the Soviet public and convince women in particular that an American-style consumer culture and conservative gender norms could better their lives.
Winning Women’s Hearts and Minds
relies on USIA archives, issues of
, and American women’s magazines such as the
Ladies’ Home Journal
to show how, during the postwar period, USIA officials deployed idealized images of American women as happy, fulfilled, and feminine wives, mothers, and homemakers.
This study analyses how
was used to appeal to Sovietwomen. Portrayed in the US media as "babushkas," they were considered unfeminine, overworked, and deprived of consumer goods and services by a repressive regime. Diana Cucuz provides a gendered analysis of the USIA and of
, whose propaganda campaign relied heavily on postwar conservative gender norms and images of domestic contentment to convey positive messages about the American way of life in the hopes of undermining the Soviet regime.
sheds light on the significance of women, gender, and consumption to international politics during the Cold War.