Magdalene (newsletter)

Magdalene: A Christian Newsletter for Women was an Australian Christian feminist magazine published by the Sydney group Christian Women Concerned.

Fifteen volumes of the title were published over a 10-year period, Volume 1 (May 1973)-3/4 1987.[1]

The group Christian Women Concerned had been formed in 1968 and was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia.[2] It was founded by a small ecumenical group of feminist scholars that included Marie Tulip, Dorothy McRae-McMahon and Jean Skuse. They sought to bring women together and make feminism more generally acceptable in an environment where the women's liberation movement was seen by some as a threat to families.[3][4]

Christian Women Concerned began publishing Magdalene in 1973 as a way to disseminate their views more widely. The magazine covered a broad range of topics in the fields of feminism and religion. Marie Tulip was one of the magazine's founding editors as well as being a regular contributor.[2] Jean Gledhill noted that Magdalene "started as a vehicle for women to tell their own stories – stories growing out of the oppression which they had experienced in the church, in domestic life, in their work and in society at large."[5]

Australian sociologist of religion and gender Kathleen McPhillips noted that Magdalene "was a powerful forum for discussion, change and creativity reflecting the early challenges of second wave feminism and its extensive social justice program."[6]

After Magdalene ceased publication in 1987 the members of Christian Women Concerned recognised and supported the development of a new Australian Christian feminist journal. Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion commenced publication in 1987.[6]