Encyclopedia Categories | Jewish Women's Archive

Advertising and Consumer Culture in the United States

Jewish women played a disproportionate role in the development of American consumer culture in the twentieth century. Throughout the century, American Jewish women embraced the modern corporation and have stood among the nation’s most significant entrepreneurs and executives.

Ilse Bing

Ilse Bing was known as the “Queen of the Leica” for her work in photojournalism, fashion, and advertising with this new camera, fast film, and darkroom techniques of polarization and cropping. Her work was highly influential in France in the 1930s when many émigré artists were energized by the cross fertilization of disciplines that contributed to modern photography.

Ruth Gikow

Ruth Gikow’s figurative paintings and murals offered her a means to comment on society and urban life. She worked on commissions for public spaces in New York, and in the 1960s and 1970s she created political works, depicting scenes from the civil rights and anti-war movements. Gikow’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, among others.

Donna Karan

Donna Karan started her career as an intern for the renowned designer Anne Klein and became the design director for Klein’s label in 1974. She quickly built a reputation for designing clothes for a range of body types. She has two of her own brands, which have become household names around the world, and her designs have regularly won awards.

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger creates conceptual art that pushes audiences to question assumptions about gender, violence, patriotism, and their relationship to the media. Kruger has exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. Perhaps more significantly, she has brought her art to such urban public spaces as bus stops, subway stations, and billboards.

Matilda Steinam Kubie

Matilda Steinam Kubie directed her energies toward the support and growth of charitable institutions that sought to better the lives of those in the Jewish community. She helped many organizations extend their reach through her leadership and her savvy use of advertising.

Portrayals of Women in Israeli Media

Representations of women in a variety of Israeli media, such as advertising, news, and entertainment, reflect and perpetuate the marginality of women in Israeli society. While representations have diversified over the years, showing Israeli women in more varied professional roles and enjoying sexual freedom and independence, overall the gender inequity remains and women are still marginalized in Israeli media.

Photographers in the United States

Jewish American women photographers are a diverse group that have explored a wide range of styles and techniques. A significant number of Jewish American women photographers have had a strong social conscience—whether they were born to wealth as were Doris Ulmann and Diane Arbus, or in working-class neighborhoods, as were Helen Levitt and Rebecca Lepkoff, or come from abroad, as did Sandra Weiner.

Shirley Polykoff

Shirley Polykoff became one of the top advertising executives of the mid-twentieth century by crafting ad campaigns that transformed how Americans saw products from coffee to hair dye.

Sheryl Sandberg

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg sparked debate and controversy over women’s opportunities and hurdles in the workforce with her first book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.

Dawn Steel

Dawn Steel’s career began with sports publication, but she went on to become the merchandising director of Penthouse, entrepreneur of her own company, and finally moved into Hollywood. Despite struggling with studio gender politics, extraordinary marketing talents ultimately catapulted her to becoming the industry’s second female studio head.

Grete Stern

Grete Stern was one of the founders of Argentina’s modern photography. After studying photography in bohemian Berlin and at the legendary Bauhaus School, Stern developed an unconventional approach to photography, including advertisement collages and studies with crystals, objects, and still-lifes. Between 1935 and 1981 Stern was an influential artistic presence in Argentina, known for her photographic work, graphic design, and teaching.

Marcy Syms

Marcy Syms became one of the youngest female presidents of a New York Stock Exchange-traded company when her family’s business, Syms Corp., went public in 1983.

Helen Rosen Woodward

Helen Rosen Woodward is best known for her contribution to the world of advertising and is generally believed to be the first female account executive in the United States. She was also prolific author who was committed to social justice.

The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Business & Economics: Advertising and Marketing