''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.
The group Christian Women Concerned had been formed in 1968 and was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. It was founded by a small ecumenical group of feminist scholars that included
Marie Tulip
Marie Tulip (12 March 1935 – 19 September 2015) was an Australian feminist writer, academic and proponent for the ordination of women as priests.Dorothy McRae-McMahon and
Jean Skuse
Jean Enid Skuse (born 1 January 1932) is an Australian Christian leader and ecumenist who served as the general secretary of the Australian Council of Churches and the Vice-Moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (W ...
. 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.
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.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."
Australian sociologist of religion and gender
Kathleen McPhillips
Kathleen McPhillips is an Australian sociologist of religion and gender in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia and the current vice-president of the Australian Associat ...
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."
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.
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...