Last week the oldest Catholic liberal arts college for women in the United States announced it would admit men into its campus-based undergraduate programs for the first time since the institution was founded 175 years ago. As an alumna, I have lived the value and reaped the benefits of all-women’s liberal arts education at a Catholic institution. But throughout the past year, my work of recruiting young women to attend the College revealed in new ways the dissonance between Catholic higher education and women in this time and place. As is the case in most sacred struggles I have more questions than answers, but I will speak to what I have felt and observed.
In the 21st century it has become increasingly difficult for institutions and individuals to identity as both Catholic and pro-woman. As a constituent at a women’s institution, I celebrate the empowerment of women in leadership roles within their careers and families. But as a constituent of a Roman Catholic institution, I am aware of the Church’s patriarchal governance and inconsistent appropriation of power to lay and religious women. As a constituent of a women’s institution, I see women’s diverse expressions of sexuality and gender. But as a constituent of a Catholic institution, I am immersed in binary, sexist language and assumptions at every formal liturgy. Continue reading “A Decision To Exist: One Feminist’s Musings on the Transformation of a Catholic Women’s College by Cathleen F.”
Feminism and Religion 