Railway companies in inter-war Britain sought to sell their services to a wide range of markets in an increasingly challenging competitive environment. During this period women were an increasingly important segment of the market for the railways (and for their competitors), given their role as wage earners and a vital influence over family decisions affecting the holidays, excursions and other leisure traffic which were the main focus of railway publicity. As a result women were targeted directly by some publicity campaigns and were an important implicit target in many others. Surveying and analysing a range of inter-war railway publicity, this article argues that the image of women in such material is a matter not simply of power relations and gender stereotypes but of a much more subtle and nuanced phenomenon which reflects important aspects of the perception of women, particularly in the commercial sphere, during this period of cultural and social change.
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