Celebration of Know How

Martha, The Business

Martha Stewart has been given many labels- Domestic Diva, Lifestyle Maven, Savvy Businesswoman, Hard-As-Nails Director, - and has made an empire out of turning a necessity into a virtue (Stabile 316).

Martha, The Business Born in 1941 to working-class parents in Nutley, New Jersey, Martha's strong work-ethic was heavily influenced by both her mother and her father. "My mother taught me the pleasures of keeping a clean and tidy home and sewing clothes for myself, and my father showed me how to grow vegetables in our garden." Martha frequently speaks of her mother as being resourceful, creative, and tirelessly productive in all aspects of maintaining a household and raising her six children.

Martha, The Business

Martha Kostyra, Martha’s mother, was a very capable homemaker, typical for the time, and instilled in Martha an appreciation of and skill for homekeeping, cooking, baking, sewing, preserving foods and other domestic pursuits. Martha, being the second oldest of six children, was tapped to help with many household tasks, giving her an early introduction into the domain to which she would later contribute.

Martha, The BusinessMartha's success, like that of many other innovative creators, is the result of consist hard work within a particular domain. Similar to other innovators, a degree of luck, or being positioned in the right place at the right time, was beneficial to her progress as well.  After graduating from Barnard College with a double major in History and Architectural History, Martha worked for a short time as a stockbroker.

Martha, The BusinessIn 1976, she and then husband Andy Stewart moved to Westport Connecticut, and Martha, armed with the knowledge she gained growing up, started a local catering business out of her home kitchen. In 10 years, that small venture had become a $1million dollar business, Martha Stewart, Inc.

Martha, The Business

Her first published book, Martha Stewart Entertaining, was released in 1982 and was an instant success. In 1990, Martha Stewart, Inc. became Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), a publicly traded corporation consisting of four segments: Publishing, including four magazines, books, and four syndicated newspaper columns; Internet, including marthastewart.com website, The Martha Blog, and The Daily Wag (Martha’s pets’ blog); Broadcast, including television programs and satellite radio; and Merchandising through many partners including JCPenney, Macy’s, The Home Depot, KB Home, Staples, Petsmart, and Walgreens .  

Martha, The BusinessWhen Martha Stewart began her catering business in 1976, other catering businesses existed. When she published her first book on entertaining, other cookbooks and other books on entertaining existed. When she published her first magazine, Martha Stewart Living, in 1990, other lifestyle magazines existed.

Martha, The Business

Martha Stewart was able to bring these pursuits, as well as homekeeping, decorating, and later health and wellness together under a larger umbrella of lifestyle with style, and literally make an art out of an everyday necessity, changing, or perhaps creating, a domain of domesticity-done-with-pride. Martha’s advice and example encouraged home-keepers, admittedly mostly women, to notice the beauty, to be efficient, and to take pride in activities that home-makers had been performing for generations.

Martha, The Extras

Martha's mother, Martha Kostyra, influenced Martha's "know-how" attitude by example over the course of her growing-up. Martha Kostyra also provided an example of and inspiration for healthy, active living into the very later years of life.  Martha Kostyra died in 2007 at the age of 93 and was vibrant and strong until just before she died. Inspired by her mother, Martha Stewart personally contributed to Mt. Sinai Hospital and in 2008, The Martha Stewart Center for Living, an outpatient center for geriatric health, was opened.  In 2013, Martha released her 79th book, Living the Good Long Life: A Practical Guide for Caring for Yourself and Others, in Martha's words, a guide to "Successful aging."

Martha, The Extras

In 2012, MSLO launched American Made, a program designed to highlight and celebrate American craftspeople and entrepreneurs, and help them grow their businesses.

Martha, The Extras

American Made is a direct outgrowth of the "Maker Movement," which celebrates the values of self-reliance, skilled labor and creative expression, values that are fundamental to the Martha Stewart ideology.

Martha, The ExtrasAlthough Martha Stewart belongs to a generation that is not known for being particularly technologically savvy, she has embraced technology in many platforms and has been on the leading edge of the use of technology in her media empire. Martha is an avid photographer and has endorsed not only digital photography but the organized storage and access of images via a web-based application like Picasa, and the ease of manipulation and utility of digital images. MSLO has been in the forefront of employing social media to maintain contact with fans and, in a rather risky move, Martha recently invited her live audience to blog during the show that was dubbed “The Tech Show.”

Martha, The SubjectAs a business entrepreneur, Martha Stewart is a curious contradiction. She is a powerful, successful, independent, strong-minded business woman, illustrating feministic values. Her empire is based on the domestic arts- housekeeping, entertaining, cooking, decorating- many activities that would seem counter to a feministic view.

Martha, The SubjectAs Jennifer Cotter says in “Martha Stewart: The Global Capitalist Behind the Domestic Label,” Martha has “turned the tables on patriarchy by building an empire out of a "woman's place" in the home.” Martha has been criticized for capitalizing on activities that would keep women trapped in the home but, the basis of the Martha Stewart Living business ideology is for home-makers/women to find satisfaction in these pursuits and to pursue these activities with style and pride.

Martha, The Subject

Another criticism of the Martha Stewart ideology is the idea that, to follow the suggestions or the example she espouses takes a substantial amount of disposable income and time. In “Getting What She Deserved: The News Media, Martha Stewart, and Masculine Domination,” Carol Stabile describes the Martha Stewart Living television show as being about “the colonization of time: about making leisure time even more productive and profitable.” Stabile says that this prospect can be exhausting to those already taxed for time and money and simply looking for rest and relaxation from their leisure time.

Martha, The SubjectPersonally, I do not possess either disposable income or time and yet I find satisfaction and creative outlet in reading Martha Stewart Living magazine and glimpsing the lifestyle found in the pages. For me, a modest interpretation of the lifestyle promoted by the Martha Stewart ideology is not a negatively-charged compromise. Additionally, some people prefer to be active and productive, even during “leisure” time, especially if that activity involves finding flow as a result of focused, creative pursuits.  

Martha, The SubjectStabile goes on to say that the show is focused on the “more masculine doing,” different from other shows hosted by women, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show or The Rosie O’Donnell Show which demonstrate a more therapeutic, feministic, talk-show type format. Stabile faults the Martha Stewart Show’s “doing” ethos for not ultimately resulting in “giving”, as The Oprah Winfrey Show frequently does.

Martha, The SubjectStabile does say that The Martha Stewart Show is akin to “a celebration of know-how,” a premise that can be empowering for female (and male!) viewers and appreciated by those who share that “can-do,” curiosity.