One of the journal's primary missions: jobs for women. The ladies pursue their agenda by arguing for reformed laws and new mindsets and, more ambitiously, offering training. The Ladies proposed in its initial issue to offer each week an essay on some skill or another--such as photography or flower arranging--which would help its readers train for employment.
As usual, The Ladies' political ambitions mix with seemingly frivolous ones: an article on medical education for women in Paris is squeezed into what's left of pages filled with fashions, and interrupted with a full-page drawing of lace. Check out one page of the layout. In the Oct. 12 article, a doctor who believes women's education in medicine to be "one of the noblest movements of the day" describes a Paris school that trains many of the "subjugated sex."
Halfway through its nine-month run, The Ladies introduced a weekly report on working women, styled along Mayhewvian lines. The article introducing the series:
