Promises unfulfilled

American religious sisters and gender inequality in the post-Vatican II Catholic Church

Bibliographic Data

ID18985231
AuthorsRyan P Murphy (0000-0002-5484-7528, Temple University, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume61
Issue4
Pages594-610
Publication date2014-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7686 • E-ISSN: 1461-7404
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0037768614547487
OpenAlexW2053324166
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited13

In light of the Vatican’s recent doctrinal investigation of American Catholic nuns, this paper considers gender inequality in the Catholic Church immediately before, during and after the Second Vatican Council. Using Weber’s frameworks of authority construction and literature on corporate structures that reify inequality and gendered workplaces, the author argues that viewing the Church as a complex social organization allows for a fuller understanding of the ways in which its structures of power are constructed and reproduced. Ultimately, the author contends that religious sisters are stakeholders in a hierarchical organization that has prevented them from assuming leadership roles and from developing official Church teaching. Finally, he identifies several hegemonic forces that perpetuate gender barriers in the Catholic Church, specifically the obligatory wearing of the religious habit and the ban on women’s ordination

Gender inequality · Hegemony · Holy See · Inequality · Political science · Power (physics) · Sociology · Structural inequality · Catholicism and Religious Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment · Religion, Society, and Development