I just finished watching the new Martha documentary on Netflix, and it really puts into perspective just how massive Martha Stewart’s influence has been—not just on all things home and cooking but also on pop culture, the idea of self-branding, and feminist empowerment.  

I have been a Martha Stewart fan for a while now. I always loved her magazine—or magazines, plural—as she had multiple iterations, including Living, Holidays, Weddings, and Gardening! I still have a few that I’ve saved and go back to from time to time, especially her issue with Easter egg dyeing tips. 

 

When she launched her product line at Kmart (a genius move, by the way, which has been copied by numerous celebrity personalities thereafter), I rushed to my nearest location on Astor Place in Manhattan. It had been over a decade since I had set foot in a Kmart, but I just had to see what she created.

 

I watched her cooking shows and recreated recipes from Everyday Foods. Even now, if I see her name attached to a recipe online, I will pull it up and trust it before any other in the search results.  

If Martha Stewart touches it, it’s a good thing! 

 

Examining Martha Stewart’s Influence in (and Out of) the Home

I’ve written about Martha Stewart’s influence in the home before. She graciously welcomed us into Turkey Hill, and I was captivated by her on-screen kitchen—from the hanging copper pots to the antique butcher block island. It was all aspirationally over the top and feminine but the stage for some serious business and influence. From her home, she was able to yield immense power, showing us just how valuable the home space really is. 

 

“There is no single recipe for success. But there is one essential ingredient: Passion.” – Martha Stewart

 

Understanding the Value of Homemaking

Martha Stewart recognized the value of home at a time when business leaders wouldn’t have placed any monetary price on things like gardening, home cooking, and setting the table for a dinner party. She revealed the artistry in homemaking and used her business acumen to turn what she did best into a billion-dollar industry. So many “feminine” arts, like homemaking or fiber arts, have historically been perceived as frivolous or less valuable than their masculine counterparts. But by giving value to the art of homemaking, Martha could extend her power beyond the home and into a culture of female empowerment.   

Feminist Empowerment 

Martha Stewart has become a feminist icon. One of her famous quotes is, “If you learn something new every day, you can teach something new every day.” She saw that a new generation of women had grown up without learning many of the skills of homemaking, and there were no modern resources on the subject. Everything she did, she did to teach. She empowered women to not only feel confident in their homemaking skills but also changed the cultural perception of domestic skills themselves into things that held immense value and importance. (And into skills that had the potential to make you tons of money.) 

The Business of Perfectionism 

Martha doesn’t do anything halfway. She’s a self-admitted perfectionist. While we both share the same passion for elevating the home in our work, I am far from being a perfectionist. However, like Martha, I want to convey the importance and value of beauty in the home, along with comfort and ease. I admire her perfectionism and her success, as well as all she’s done for the business of home. Now more than ever, folks see the value of investing in their homes and building a comfortable place to live. And Martha’s passions and perfectionism helped drive that. 

Unapologetic Self Branding 

Martha Stewart has been called the original influencer. More than an “influencer” in the modern sense of the term, I believe she is a master of leveraging her influence. She created the first publicly traded company that was built around the skills, personality, and brand of one person. She’s always been authentically herself, never apologizing or attempting to make others comfortable at her own expense. And people love it. While other celebrity personalities have fallen by the wayside or into irrelevance, Martha has managed to keep up with the times with new iterations of her multifaceted personality. How many other 80-year-olds have a sense of confidence with enough gravitational pull to land them on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition? 

The Fear of Influence 

Martha Stewart was changing the world and empowering women across the country. Which, for some men in power, was a terrifying thing. As we know, she was unjustly tried and sentenced in a media circus that was nothing more than a witch hunt for a successful woman. She committed no crime except not being “nice.” However, any of her actions would have been overlooked or even applauded had she been a man. 

 

She was punished for being a direct perfectionist and successful woman. As Martha said, “Those prosecutors should have been put in a Cuisinart turned on high.”

However, Martha came back and, in many ways, is bigger than she ever was. She turned the tides on her own public perception, and I like to think that extends to the perception of successful, dominating women as a whole. 

 

Martha Stewart’s Continued Effects on Cultural Movements

Martha Stewart published her first book, Entertaining, in 1982. The book was a guide on building your dinner party from scratch, maybe even using herbs from your garden or cutting flowers for the centerpiece yourself. It rejected the ethos of cookbooks from decades prior, which were all about hacks for quick meals or creating jello molds of canned ingredients. 

 

She embraced the natural food movement, which continued to grow through the 90s. Today, some younger generations are taking the roots of her movement to the extreme through the “homesteading” movement. It’s become sought after to move out to the countryside, grow vegetables in your garden, and spend your time cooking a meal from scratch and gathering around the table. Like Martha’s lifestyle, it is highly aspirational as it takes one of our greatest resources—time. 

Martha Stewart is a Good Thing 

If Martha Stewart hadn’t created the empire she did, I am not entirely sure where we’d be today. That sounds dramatic, but our world would most certainly look different. The art of homemaking could have fallen by the wayside, and the roles of interior designers may not hold quite the level of importance as they do. We may have never seen the rise of the influencer, and products could have been left cold and impersonal. And women may not have had this reinvigorating moment of empowerment and be even further behind. 

 

No, Martha has done so much, and everything she’s done…

 

Is a good thing.