Chatelaine Magazine

Chatelaine Magazine, a Canadian women's magazine, was started by Maclean Hunter Limited in 1928 with a circulation of 57 053. The first editor was Anne Elizabeth Wilson, followed by Byrne Hope Sanders. During the 1930s and 1940s, like most North American magazines, Chatelaine ran a heavy content of fiction, recipes, beauty, fashion, child care and etiquette, with emphasis on the role of woman as homemaker. In 1951 Lotta Dempsey became editor, followed by John Clare and, in 1957, Doris McCubbin Anderson. Mildred Istona served as editor from 1978 to 1995 and was succeeded by Rona Maynard.

By the 1960s Chatelaine was the sole remaining women's magazine in Canada. A dozen other magazines had died owing to the domination of US magazines on newsstands (1961) and to over 50% of Canadian advertising dollars flowing into Time and Readers' Digest. Chatelaine survived by responding more rapidly than its US competitors to the concerns of women joining the work force and the beginning of the women's movement, with articles on equal pay, child abuse, abortion and the poverty of women, as well as traditional service articles geared to the working woman's life. It became the biggest paid-circulation magazine in Canada, and in 1976 Bill C-58 effectively stemmed the US competition. The average total paid circulation in 1994 was 948 000. Châtelaine is a separate French-language magazine.