Discussion of Results
Justice in Education
Education for Clergy: Women are poorly represented on seminary faculties, and often relegated to teaching ancillary courses such as ESOL (English to Speakers of a Second Language). A number of seminaries have only one female faculty member.
In fairness we must note that U.S. institutions of higher education also have been slow to integrate their ranks. The journal "Inside Higher Education" reports that even in professions where women have made significant academic progress, women "make up only 15.4 percent of full professors in the social and behavioral sciences and 14.8 percent in the life sciences, despite having earned more than 30 percent and 20 percent of the doctorates in those fields, respectively, over more than 30 years."i
The impact of segregation upon "making sense" of information during the educational process is well-established. Learning is a social process. When the institutions training future priests fail to expose them to competent women in positions of authority and as colleagues, it is not only unjust, but it sends a message about the competence of women. Lack of diversity in educational settings reinforces negative female stereotypes, limits the discourse so necessary to active learning, and limits the social, intellectual and pastoral development of candidates for the priesthood.
In addition, it appears there is no clear commitment by the seminaries to assuring that priests in training are exposed to the history of women in the church, and the theological foundations for the equality of women. This troubling omission runs counter to the USCCB's recommendationsii for priestly formation and practically assure future priests will be ill-equipped to serve as competent pastors and leaders.
Education for Laity:
Similarly, there is an apparent lack of attention to educating future generations of Catholics. Catholics, young and old, need a much deeper understanding of their church's history and especially the role of women. The church's teachings regarding women, slavery, usury, divorce and remarriage, etc., developed and changed over the generations. Such learning helps to put the development of our faith traditions into context, and promotes a more adult understanding of church doctrines and teachings. Placing our traditions into historical and cultural context also makes it clear that faith and reason are inseparable throughout the history of our church.
Too many Catholics still believe that the church is incapable of change. Roman Catholicism is not fundamentalist or we would still be arguing that the earth is the center of the universe and that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. The failure to adequately educate Catholics about the history of women in the early and medieval church denies Catholics a more mature understanding of Catholicism.
We do, however, see a bright spot in the prevailing norm of providing financial assistance to men and women preparing for lay ministries. This, too, was one of the key 1998 recommendations of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Committee on Women in Society and in the Church.iii
Justice in the Liturgy:
It is within the celebration of the Mass that women experience most keenly a sense of alienation. They feel either welcomed as participants or as intruders. The bishops have gotten the message, having made enormous progress in terms of incorporating women in their liturgical celebrations. Despite some residual reluctance, most bishops allow girls to be altar servers. This is particularly important for young girls, whose first exposure to discrimination against their core identity may occur in their church, the place where they should feel safest and deeply "at home" with their God. Often, the first stirring of what may ultimately result in a calling to deeper service occurs when children are welcomed as participants in liturgical celebrations.
Justice in Representation
The bishops clearly are working to find ways to promote women within the institution.iv They have made significant progress in this regard. However our sample reveals that the bishops have been too slow to implement the Vatican II call for diocesan pastoral councils, with only 70 percent of the surveys reporting that their diocese even has such a body. These councils, which would be made up of men and women from all sectors of the diocese, are meant to leaven the bishops' thinking and inform their policies.
Few bishops are choosing to appoint elected representatives to their advisory bodies. When the Second Vatican Council adopted a call for lay representation, the bishops hoped the laity would help inform their decision-making. If a bishop chooses to appoint people he likes and feels are "safe," rather than allowing the churches to elect their own representatives to the councils, he is limiting his own capacity to be informed and to learn how his policies impact the life of the local church. We hope this survey will encourage the bishops to adopt more democratic methods of choosing advisory boards.
There remains an ‘old boys' club' environment on finance councils. If the bishops limit their appointments to successful men from the business world, they will merely reinforce the discrimination that continues to occur in the private business sector. (See below.) We note that when bishops maintain offices for cultural or ethnic Catholics, they tend to select women to lead them.
We wish to celebrate the fact that more women serve in top administrative positions in the dioceses we surveyed. The bishops continue to improve their record of appointing women to top diocesan posts. Certainly, a ratio of 3 women to every 10 men is an improvement. In fact, the bishops outshine private industry.v A six year study released by the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth in November 2006 revealed just 7 percent of the nation's 1,000 largest firms had more than 1 woman in upper management. Some bishops have appointed women as chancellors, the number two spot in their management ranks. The surveys tell us that bishops are promoting women to upper management, just not in numbers equal to men in these offices.
i "The Real Barriers to Women in Science," by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Education, Sept., 19, 2006, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/19/women
ii "From Words to Deeds: Continuing Reflections on the Role of Women in the Church," Committee on Women in Society and in the Church." National Conference of Catholic Bishops, (1998), http://www.usccb.org/laity/words.shtml#goalone
iii Ibid.
vA six-year study by two researchers from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University and a researcher at Loyola University in Chicago revealed that 48 % of the top 1,000 largest companies in the United States listed no women in their official listings of top executives. Of 942 companies analyzed over a six year period, only 7.2% had more than two women in their top ranks, and just 2.6% had more than three. See "The Pipeline to the Top: Women and Men in the Top Executive Ranks of U.S. Corporations," by Constance Helfat, Dawn Harris, and Paul J. Wolfson. Academy of Management Perspectives, November, 2006.)