Marie Tulip

Born Marie Grant in Mackay, Queensland to parents Robert and Elspeth Grant, Tulip attended a Presbyterian church as a child.^[1] Tulip attended boarding school in Brisbane and later, having received a scholarship, attended the University of Queensland where she studied Arts and achieved an Honours degree in French.^[1] As an undergraduate, she participated in Australian Student Christian Movement gatherings with, among others, James (Jim) Tulip (who became Associate Professor of English and Lecturer in Divinity at the University of Sydney).^[4][5][6] They married in Chicago in 1957.^[1] They had four children and, by the time of her death in 2015, five grandchildren.^[1]

In Chicago, Tulip undertook a Master's degree at Northwestern University while also teaching at Roosevelt University.^[1] Upon her return to Australia, Tulip tutored in the French Department at the University of Sydney and, after a year, transferred to Macquarie University where she produced a series of publications, Outreach Texts, in relation to the University's newly-formed Teaching English as a Second Language course.^[1] She went on to teach courses in feminism and religion and published work in these fields.

In 1968, Tulip was a founder of Christian Women Concerned, the first explicitly religious feminist organisation to emerge in Australia.^[7][8] The group published Magdalene, of which Tulip was the editor.^[3]

In 1973, Tulip was appointed co-ordinator of the Australian Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches in Australia) Commission on the Status of Women, an initiative of Jean Skuse. She was also a member of the National Women's Consultative Council, established in 1984.

Tulip's book Knowing otherwise: feminism, women & religion, was co-authored with Erin White and published in 1991. One reviewer, Margaret Heagney described the work as “a vital contribution to feminist scholarship in Australia”. ^[9]