| Discipline | Christianity studies |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publication details | |
| History | 1973–1987 |
| Publisher | Christian Women Concerned (Australia) |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Magdalene |
| Indexing | |
| OCLC no. | 173323146 |
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]
In 2020, Australian historian Clare Monagle was awarded a Religious History Fellowship by the State Library of New South Wales for the project: Christian Consciousness Raising: Magdalene Journal and Australian feminism. [7] [8]
Mannix Library in East Melbourne has digitised all issues of the title and made it available via the University of Divinity's Digital Collections website [9] and on JSTOR Open Community Collections. [10]