Periodical participants : women in conservative and mainline Protestant periodicals, 1956-1970.

Abstract

In mid-twentieth century Protestantism, women were active within churches and parachurch organizations, yet in the minority in religious leadership. This thesis treats their religious participation in a form outside pews or pulpits: print. Examining six periodicals from the mid-1950s until 1970—Christianity Today, Moody Monthly, United Evangelical Action, the Christian Century, Christianity and Crisis, and the Watchman-Examiner—it contrasts their writings to men’s on quantitative and qualitative levels. It also compares conservative and mainline periodicals. Within periodicals, women wrote frequently in poetry and fiction; thus, this thesis also examines the standalone literary contributions of women who simultaneously wrote for these magazines. Women’s participation in religious magazines was limited but present, and examining the topics and genres of their writings in periodicals and elsewhere illuminates broader religious practice. As both insiders and outsiders, women contributed to white Protestant periodical and literary discourse, though often in different quantities and genres than men.