Cirrus@Austlit

'When The New Idea (now New Idea) hit newsstands in 1902 – the same year that Australian women gained the right to vote – it claimed that it ‘was a new departure in Australian journalism’. It would become the longest running, continuously published women’s magazine in Australia. William Shum was its first editor. Shum had a long journalistic career, working alongside Sir Keith Murdoch at The Herald and becoming editor of The Australian Home Beautiful in 1925. Histories of the Australian press have largely focused on the hard-news publications of the industry’s ‘paper emperors’; women’s and domestic magazines have largely been ignored, as has the work of those journalists who contributed to them. In introducing us to the life and work of William Shum, Sue Walker (who is Shum’s granddaughter) shines a light on one of these overlooked journalists and contributes to the growing historiography of the Australian media.' (Introduction)

'Ita Buttrose, Dulcie Boling, and Nene King were three of the most influential women leaders in the Australian media from the 1970s through to the turn of the twenty-first century. They were all editors of some of Australia’s most popular women’s magazines, including Cleo, Woman’s Day, New Idea and the Australian Women’s Weekly, and were all appointed to positions on the boards of Australia’s top media companies. This article historicises the careers of Buttrose, Boling, and King, positing that the way that their careers were constructed in the media, by themselves and others, reinforced gendered assumptions regarding women’s leadership capabilities. These constructions evidence a nascent postfeminist conception of women in power in Australia from the 1970s through to the 1990s. The article suggests that the ability (or not) of Buttrose, Boling, and King to conform to idealised ‘feminine’ leadership ideals reinforced (rather than challenged) the highly gendered nature of Australian corporate media leadership and governance.' (Publication summary)