IN 1783, SOPHIE VON LA ROCHE began editing the journal Pomona, which explicitly addressed a female audience. In the preface, she confidently refers to her own gender:

Even though many eighteenth-century women authors chose to remain anonymous, some did publish under their own names or used gender markers in anonymously published texts, as, for instance, Ruth Dawson has emphasized. Yet in these introductory words to Pomona, Sophie von La Roche not only highlights her gender but positions her writing against the predominant male discourse. Up until now, she says, men in public media have explained to a female audience what they consider “useful and pleasing” (prodesse et delectare) for women. Now a female editor of a journal is raising her voice and offers her readers her own selection of useful and entertaining literature. This self-confident point of view was made possible by a changing environment.

Moral weekly or monthly journals were among the most important media in the eighteenth century for disseminating knowledge, literature, and skills in a range of areas, as evidenced by an increase in the number of publications over the course of the century. Between 1730 and 1740, 176 journals were founded; between 1741 and 1765, 754; and between 1766 and 1791, 2,191. The overwhelming majority of these journals were composed and edited by men. Only a small number—Ulrike Weckel counts 14—were composed by women. Sophie von La Roche was one of the first women to publish a journal and to address a primarily female audience. In an age without an established school system and without universal education requirements, journals offered women an important avenue for increasing their knowledge and for reading for pleasure.