How Women's Weekly has shaped Australia over 90 years

The Australian Women's Weekly is a household staple that's been funny, controversial, ever-present, and forever causing waves during its reign. This year, it's turning 90.

The magazine has covered everything through history from tragedy, survival, triumph and scandal - there with Australian women every step of the way since June 1933.

The publication was started by Sir Frank Packer, giving women a platform to be heard.

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As Australian women found their voice, so too did the magazine as the story unfolded on its pages.

"The Weekly told stories that would never have been told if that magazine didn't exist," the 13th editor of the magazine, Nicole Byers, told A Current Affair.

During World War II the pages reflected the fight women had joined.

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An iconic magazine cover in the early days even featured a woman on a motorbike, which was progressive at the time.

"This isn't what any other media was doing at the time, so to see a woman in a very masculine pose on a bike, no apologies, (it was) really a very powerful symbol of the Women's Weekly at the time," Byers said.

In the 1940s Women's Weekly war correspondent Dorothy Drain was sent to Japan and then Vietnam, which set a serious undertone for the magazine.

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"It's important to stand on the right side of history for these big moments and to be there … informing women and giving them the right to make the right decisions," Byers said.

The magazine covered topics like war rationings and then moved on to the lush fashions of the 1950s.

The Women's Weekly was in almost every household in Australia.

It influenced what we wore, the food we ate, the books we read and even the men we married.

The world was about to see massive change and so was the Women's Weekly.

Women were demanding more and they explored crazy new designs and dishes like the jellied veal loaf.

Then, when Ita Buttrose ran the magazine, she transformed it into a glossy monthly.

Editor of the 1990s Nene King said Princess Diana was a never-fail cover girl, and during the decade the publication cemented itself as a royal magazine.

"It didn't matter what you did, you put her on the cover and it went through the roof," King said.

Australians loved everything the princess did, so the Women's Weekly shared the pattern for her Australian-made koala sweater.

The magazine was also known for its cakes, whether they were good, bad or ugly.

Agnes Lee created the now world-famous duck cake and its iconic chip lips.

Woven among the recipes and patterns were progressive agendas like the contraceptive pill, the Indigenous vote and IVF.

"It was always pushing the boundaries, (it) was always exploring ideas …. so divorce, being able to go back to work after pregnancy, being able to work through pregnancy," former editor Helen McCabe said.

And to this day, more than a million Australians still grab a copy each month.

Australian Women's Weekly celebrates 90 years with Bendigo exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery. The exhibition marks the 90th anniversary of The Australian Women's Weekly through a look back at some of the inspiring women who have been part of the magazine's history, the changing eras of fashion and style brought to life on its pages, and the creativity it has inspired in the domestic sphere.