Feminist consciousness among American nuns: Patterns of ideological diffusion

Women’s Studies ht. Forum, Vol. 12. No. 5, pp. 529-537, 1989 Printed in the USA.

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FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS AMONG AMERICAN NUNS: PATTERNS OF IDEOLOGICAL DIFFUSION

PATRICIA WITTBERG Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458, U.S.A.

Synopsis- Recent research in Women’s Studies has begun to focus on groups of women who are not connected with the mainstream women’s movement. One group of women which has been neglected in this new focus are members of Roman Catholic religious orders in the United States. The present article examines the feminist beliefs and values of several groups of American nuns. While the opinions of these women conform to those of mainstream feminism with regard to the Equal Rights Amendment and the ordination of women, they differ on other issues. Some beliefs appear to depend upon the individual nun’s personal experience of discrimination in church- related jobs. The concluding section considers some implications of the research, both for women in Roman Catholic religious communities and for Women’s Studies researchers who may study them in the future.

Recent research in Women’s Studies has begun to focus upon groups of women who are isolated from, or even in organizations opposed to, the mainstream women’s movement (Abu Lughod, 1985; Caplan, 1985; Gilkas, 1985; Luker, 1984; Rose, 1987; Rowland, 1985; Usher & Fels, 1985). As a result, it has become increasingly evident that categorizing women simply as pro or antifeminist fails to do justice to the many and varied permutations of gender-affirming beliefs and values which arise among them. The lifestyles of women even in extremely repressive environments may show unexpected points of congruence with feminism, often in conjunction with other beliefs or practices which appear incompatible to it. Rose (1987), for example, has shown how women in a fundamentalist charismatic community in New York state could profess an ideology which simultaneously held women to be stronger than men and yet rightfully subordinate to them. Abu Lughod, in her study of Bedouin women, stated that “Although not the result of a self-conscious feminist separa- tion or a deliberate fostering of bonds of sis- terhood, the tone, intensity and closeness of relationships within the Bedouin women’s community approach those idealized by fem-

I gratefully acknowledge the comments of two anon- ymous reviewers and the editors of WSIF on earlier drafts of this paper.

inists” (1985, p. 657). Even members of groups which self-consciously oppose feminist causes often hold many pro-feminist beliefs: Rowland noted that some of the anti- abortion activists she interviewed “would be strong feminist supporters if not for the abortion issue” (1985, p. 253).

In order, therefore, to deepen our understanding of the women’s movement “in terms of all women” (Rowland, 1985, p. 249), it is necessary to study those groups which are located outside mainstream movement organizations and activities. One topic which has been relatively ignored in the focus on non-mainstream groups is the extent and configuration of feminist beliefs among the women in Roman Catholic religious congregations in the United States.’ A recent issue of Signs devoted to women’s communal groups, for example, contained studies of Bedouin harems (Abu Lughod, 1985), social workers at Hull House (Sklar, 1985), black women church activists (Gilkas, 1985) and female cotton mill workers in Shanghai (Honig, 1985), but not a single article on the oldest and most widespread women’s communal institution of all. Rohrlich’s and Baruch’s (1984) collection of research on women’s utopias was similarly lacking. The few works which discuss contemporary nuns (e.g., Curb & Manahan, 1985; Ebaugh, 1988; San Giovanni, 1978) deal largely with the women who have left their orders. Those

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who have continued to live communally under what many feminists would consider a repressive church environment have been less studied. The present paper will attempt to fill this gap by describing the structure of profeminist beliefs and values held by American nuns, both those whose activities and opinions have placed them publicly with mainstream feminism, and those who have not so identified themselves. Finally, some tentative explanatory hypotheses will be advanced to account for the development of the nuns’ beliefs.

AMERICAN NUNS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF FEMINISM

Although 20th century religious orders of women in the U.S. have been overlooked both in church history and in women’s studies (Thompson, 1986; Weaver, 1985), the research on nineteenth century congregations documents the initiative and independence with which these women established and op- erated an impressive variety of institutional works (Ewens, 1978, 1979, 1981; Thompson, 1986). According to Ewens, nuns were “in some ways the most liberated women in nineteenth century America.” Freed from marriage and motherhood, they had access to personal fulfillment through education and meaningful work, were economically inde- pendent, and experienced sisterly support (Ewens, 1979, p. 256). The Vatican’s 1917 codification of Canon Law, however, initi- ated a “Great Repression” that resulted in the imposition of increased restrictions upon the sisters’ activities: it established various clois- ter regulations, forbade some communities to care for babies and maternity cases or to staff co-educational schools, and discour- aged warm relationships-or even contacts - with men (Ewens, 1979, p. 273). Ironically, the 1917 codification, which was imposed by male church officials to restrict women’s religious communities, had the effect of making nuns less aware of the ways their lives were constrained by male authority.

As a result of their newly-imposed isolation, nuns in the first seven decades of the twentieth century were less likely to be aware of, or sympathetic with, the issues raised by the two waves of the women’s movement which occurred during this period (Colgan,

1975). After entering their orders, most sisters had little personal experience of oppression by individual men, and, in fact, little informal, day-to-day contact with men at all. The average teaching nun, for example, rare- ly if ever interacted with the church hierarchy, and even her contacts with her local pastor were mediated by the sister who was the school’s principal. The sisters holding leadership positions also had difficulty seeing themselves as oppressed. Entering a religious congregation was, and remains, one of the surest ways for a competent woman to rise to the top of large-scale educational and health institutions in America.* These women, se- cure in their power in a semi-protected environment, were often blind to their position in the larger, male-dominated society or in the male-dominated religious institutions of which they were a part.

Until the early 197Os, therefore, the isolation of American nuns and their own mobili- ty opportunities within their congregations combined to keep them from developing self- consciously feminist beliefs. As one sister facing discrimination in a job outside her order’s own institutions commented, “One difficulty is being in a congregation with women who don’t see the oppression” (Heslin, 1983, p. 121). In their very isolation, however, the members of the congregations developed values and skills which provided many points of congruence with feminism. As a united group, sisters became accustomed to exercising corporate, if not individual, power as suppliers of the teaching and nursing services necessary to the church’s ministry. As Ewens pointed out, the provision of these essential services were s_ometimes used to wrest concessions from the hierarchy.

Bishops and priests came to have a healthy respect for the power of sisters, and with good reason. The sisters were important influences in the community and ran most of the Church’s charitable institutions. In disagreements, sisters fought for their rights and usually won. Then, too, they could and did vote with their feet, or threatened to, when the occasion war- ranted it. (Ewens, 1981, p. 107)

A second resource possessed by the nuns was control over the transmission of their

Feminist Consciousness Among American Nuns 531

knowledge and skills. Thompson (1986) doc- umented a networking system among nuns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where- by the heads of different congregations shared techniques and insights on how to transfer their orders from diocesan to ponti- fical status-a key step in breaking the control and exploitation of the bishops. Similar networking exists today (Weaver, 1985, p. 14) in the Leadership Conference of Women Re- ligious (LCWR), the National Association of Religious Women (NARW), and the Nation- al Coalition of American Nuns (NCAN), all of which proved invaluable vehicles of co- ordinated response during controversies with the male hierarchy, once nuns became more self-consciously and actively feminist. It was LCWR, for example, that served as a com- munications center for the leaders of the orders whose members had signed the New York Times abortion statement (“A diversity of opinions,” 1984), as they conferred on how to respond to the Vatican’s demands that the offending nuns be expelled. In 1980, the president of LCWR confronted Pope John Paul II before the national media on the role of women in the Church.

In addition to inter-congregational infor- mation sharing and support, a mentoring relationship has often existed among individual nuns in health and educational institutions. For example, the sisters Heslin interviewed in 1982 had become principals at the average age of 33 -much sooner than women principals in the public school system (Heslin, 1983, p. 77). “Clearly,” Heslin stated, “one trend that emerges is that someone, a principal, a supervisor, or a department chairperson, knew their potential and encouraged them” (1983, p. 81). This situation is parallel to the development of women’s potential in other separated groups (Abu Lughod, 1985, p. 648; Sklar, 1985, p. 676. See also Raymond, 1966, p. 82 and Curb & Manahan, 1985, p. 352).

Despite a noticeable lack of expressed feminist beliefs among sisters during the century’s first seven decades, therefore, the experiences of corporate power, of mentoring and of intra-institutional administrative responsibility had given congregations many “pre- feminist” characteristics (Freedman, 1979, p. 527). “Looking back,” stated an ex-nun interviewed by Curb, “I see now that the convent

was an early version of the women’s separatist movement. We were women who left be- hind the world in which women were given by men to men.” (Curb & Manahan, 1985, p. 68.) It was not until the 197Os, however, that self-conscious identification with feminist beliefs arose among some of the sisters (Kolmer, 1984, pp. 49-55; Wittberg, 1988).

One possible reason for this change may have been the nuns’ increasing contact with the larger American society. In an effort to meet government certification standards for their ministries, the Sister Formation Move- ment had encouraged sisters to pursue professional degrees, which they did at both religious and secular universities (Schneider, 1986, pp. 5-14). By 1980, 43% of all Ameri- can nuns had at least one Master’s degree, 2% had PhD’s, and virtually all (94%) had their Bachelor’s (Neal, 1984b, p. 165). As the sisters’ amount of formal education in secular settings increased, sympathy with feminism might also be expected to rise in pro- portion to the expansion of their contacts with these views in reading and daily interac- tion. Increasing numbers of sisters attended theological programs at divinity schools, for example, where they were exposed to feminist theologians and nonsexist liturgies. As a group which had long been excluded from participation in the institutionalized ideological center of Catholicism, nuns were more closely in contact with opposing ideas than the core was, and were more readily influenced by them (Kniss, 1988, p. 33).

According to Converse, when a new ideology diffuses throughout a population, entire sets of beliefs relating to the ideology are “constrained” into “packages.” That is, taking a pro or antifeminist position on one issue would constrain a person to hold predict- able opinions on other issues, whether or not there were rigorously logical connections between them (Converse, 1974, p. 211). To the extent that feminism among nuns arose from their contact with the second wave of the women’s movement, one would expect their beliefs on a wide variety of issues to resemble those of mainstream feminism.

Other possible causes have been advanced for the rise of feminist consciousness, however. Chafetz and Dworkin (1983, 1986) argue that the entry of large numbers of women into the public/productive sphere can precipi-

532 PATRICM WITTBERG

tate a feminist movement independently of contact with other movement groups. In such cases, ideological conformity with a previously-existing “package” of feminist beliefs may not exist unless the initial circumstances which gave rise to the new movement were similar to those which had led to the older one (Converse, 1974, p. 212; Deutch- man & Prince-Embry, 1982). Beginning in the 197Os, large numbers of sisters did indeed move from employment in their own congregational institutions to positions in male- dominated church structures or in the society at large (Neal, 1984a, pp. 28-29). Their lack of power in these new settings was often jar- ring to them:

. . . as experienced women religious administrators change from a traditional administrative/line position as a principal to . . . non-traditional ministry, they func- tion more as staff persons to ordained men (clergy). Most principals in this study enjoyed the power of initiating decisions. The challenge in a new ministry seemed to be a lack of structures for such a process. (Heslin, 1983, p. 6)

Since many nuns had exercised administrative responsibility prior to moving into their current subordinate positions, they were especially predisposed to evaluate their present inequality unfavorably (Chafetz & Dworkin, 1983, p. 32; Freeman, 1975, p. 90).

For a combination of reasons, therefore, one might expect some of the numbers of religious congregations to begin to express beliefs and values that were at least partly congruent with those of mainstream U.S. feminism. To the extent that these beliefs and values arose through contact with the literature and the persons involved in the mainstream women’s movement, they would conform to the accepted “package” of feminist thought. To the extent, however, that the sisters’ feminist consciousness derived from their own particular experiences, there might be particular emphases or omissions which were uniquely theirs.

The next section of this paper will attempt to outline the extent and content of feminist beliefs, not only among the sisters who were actively and openly committed to feminism, but also among nuns who did not even think

of themselves as feminist. Initially, I con- ducted taped, extended interviews in 1986 and 1987 with 24 sisters, drawn from four moderately progressive religious congregations in New York, Ohio, and Michigan, and currently employed in a wide variety of occupations - both in congregational institutions such as schools and hospitals, as well as in newer, less-traditional roles. Additional sources of data included the field notes taken at the monthly meetings of several different groups of sisters in the New York area between 1986 and 1988: a group of pastoral associates (those who assist pastors in the day-to-day running of their parishes), and two groups of sisters working in various in- ner-city and neighborhood ministries. After a description and some tentative explana- tions of the sisters’ belief structures, the concluding section will draw some implications, both for religious congregations of women in the Catholic Church as well as for future Women’s Studies researchers who may wish to investigate them.

PRO AND ANTIFEMINIST BELIEF STRUCTURES AMONG NUNS

According to the model postulated by Con- verse, if feminist beliefs and values have dif- fused among nuns due to their increased contact with the literature of and the persons involved in the mainstream women’s movement, the ideology of the sisters would conform to the accepted feminist “package.” While the contagion model obviously cannot be ruled out completely (well over 85 % of the respondents reported having friends who were members of recognized feminist groups), some of the nuns’ beliefs also appeared to depend on the structural factors inherent in their new areas of employment. On issues affecting their equal access to power within the church, the respondents were almost unanimously feminist in their opinions. Twenty of the twenty-four sisters expressed unquestioning support for the idea of women priests, and two others expressed an even more radical feminist view which re- jected the whole idea of a hierarchical priesthood:

I think the present priesthood has strayed far from the ministry of service as it is


portrayed in the Gospels. I certainly have no desire to be ordained a priest. I think perhaps we have to let this whole structure die its own death and build something new on the ashes, and then maybe I can take part in it. But I just think there are so many power struggles, so many separatist and oppressive things . . . I really would not want to see women ordained into our present priesthood, because I think that all it would do is co-opt them into the present system. (College professor, congregational institution)

On the other hand, the respondents almost unanimously opposed abortion. This may not be unexpected, since celibate nuns would not be personally confronted with this issue, and so would have less incentive to challenge official Church teaching in this regard. As Converse predicted, to the extent that the sisters’ beliefs arose from their personal situation and not from contact with other feminist groups, these beliefs reflected the particular circumstances of the initial formulation of these beliefs. Thus, some of the nuns (10) expressed total opposition to abortion:

I’m against abortion. [probe] I’m just against abortion. (Department director, diocesan office)

I’m completely against it . . . It’s a quick solution and I don’t deny that. But the quick solution is not always the best. (Di- rector, social service program, congregational hospital)

I am totally against it. It is really Cardinal O’Connor who has awakened me to this . . . you’re talking about life and the right to terminate life. This is interesting, because I had always believed in capital punishment as a deterrent, and on the head of this [abortion] I really had to re- think my stand on capital punishment because of that position on the sacredness of life. (Executive secretary, diocesan com- mission)

Other respondents, however, were keenly aware of the constraining pressures to conform with the “package” of mainstream feminist beliefs. This “awareness without accep-

tance” (Poole & Zeigler, 1981, p. 230) led to an ambivalence on the subject of abortion:

I really feel that abortion is wrong, that it is the taking of a life. Having said that, I also have to deal with the other side of it-the pregnant teenager who has chosen to carry her child to term, the pregnant teenager who has an abortion, and I have to say honestly that there is a lot of suffering out there, no matter which decision a women makes. It is not easy, and sometimes I think you have a lot of Right to Lifers talking about the evils of abortion- they turn me off. They don’t understand the whole suffering aspect that is involved in the life of the pregnant teenager . . . So I am really torn. I know that my position is that it’s wrong, but when you deal with an individual person, you sometimes have a question. (Associate school superintendent, disocesan position)

Several sisters criticized the church for a lack of understanding and Right to Life members for extremism. All expressed a profound ambivalence between their strong adherence to a religiously-influenced anti-abortion stance and their awareness that such a stance was considered antithetical to the feminism in which they also firmly believed. (See Kulp, 1985, p. 17 for groups with similar dilem- mas .)

With regard to the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, the nuns unanimously took the feminist position, Not one of the 24 respondents opposed the ERA. Many took its desir- ability so much for granted that they had difficulty imagining why anyone would question it:

I’m definitely in favor of it. [pause] I mean, don’t know what else to say other than I am in favor of it. To me it’s incon- ceivable that people -especially women - can be opposed to it. I can understand why some men may be against it, but, unless women really feel they are inferior, how could they oppose it? (College professor, congregational institution)

Three respondents pleaded ignorance based on their own personal experiences:

534 PATRICIA WITTBERG

I have a feeling that the more you have experienced limitations on your talents, your energy, your gifts, your goals, etc., probably the more sensitive you are in this area. If I had experienced personally any limitations, for example in job opportunities or recompense for the type of work being done, I could not tolerate any kind of situation where a woman has less opportunity for her services or is reimbursed at a lower level. I would say this: I don’t know if it seems appropriate to be neutral on an issue like this; in a sense I don’t see the need for it, but if a need truly exists, then I would be supportive of it. (Elemen- tary principal, parish school)

On the issues of abortion, women priests, and the Equal Rights Amendment, the sisters expressed strong agreement among themselves-if not always with the position of mainstream feminism. Other issues, however, elicited a diverse range of responses. When asked about the use of sexist language in the liturgy, for example, seven respondents expressed the antifeminist opinion that the use of “he” and “mankind” was not an important issue. A few even objected to at- tempts to change to more inclusive language:

I don’t really have any strong feeling. I find it irritating when someone who is reading in liturgy tries to make the changes and fumbles all over the place- that annoys me no end. I almost feel like I’m being insulted intellectually. (College professor, congregational institution)

Nine respondents expressed a desire for some change, but did not wish to go to “extremes”:

I really think we should clean it up . . . I don’t like this going overboard, when you get to he/she and try to match all the verbs and all the pronouns, it gets bizarre. I think we should make some general changes as best as possible without letting the language become distracting. (College professor, congregational institution)

The remaining eight respondents expressed extreme discontent with sexist language:

It drives me nuts. There was a time when I didn’t even hear it, but then my conscious-

ness was raised. Now it’s just a symbol of the oppressiveness of the church. (Pasto- ral minister, parish position)

I think it’s awful. Sometimes, I feel very left out of it. I just think it needs to be changed. It’s part of that whole male thing . . . I think language is a sign of deeper things. I don’t think it’s just “Oh, ‘he’ really means everybody.” I just don’t think that. (Pastoral minister to handi- capped, diocesan position)

Significant patterns were revealed in the employment backgrounds of the respondents in each of these groups. The respondents working in congregationally-sponsored institutions were more likely to express anti-feminist or moderate opinions. The eleven sisters in parish or diocesan staff positions, on the other hand, were disproportionately profeminist on the issue of sexist language. Their opinions seemed also to depend on their previous occupational history; of the three sisters in diocesan management, the two with prior administrative experience objected to sexist language while the sister without such experience did not. The difference in opinion between sisters in congregationally-sponsored ministry and those in male- dominated church occupations was striking, and appeared to support the hypothesis that gender consciousness springs at least partly from occupational positions of powerless- ness or inequality-especially when the sister can contrast her current position with some previously-held position of authority.

The structural model proposed by Chafetz and Dworkin (1986, pp. 79-80) assumed that, once women began to enter a male- dominated sphere, their feelings of oppression would intensify as they compared their experiences with those of other women in the same field. The sisters who worked as pastoral ministers or as directors of religious education (both positions in which they were di- rectly and individually subordinate to the parish priest) expressed more dissatisfaction with their subordinate role than did the other respondents.

“Our position is dependent on the whim of the pastor and it shouldn’t be.”

“This goes to the heart of the conflict -


what do we do if a new pastor comes in and destroys everything? We need an association to help in these situations.” [general expressions of agreement]

“There is currently nowhere to go. When the new pastor came in to my parish, he wanted to remove my title. The only thing that stopped him was when the families protested, and also the assistant priest said “then remove my title, too.” (Field notes, meeting of pastoral associates, l/9/87)

The consciousness-raising effect of their employment in male-dominated fields was thus facilitated by support groups in which the sisters in parish ministry got together and interpreted their experiences in the light of feminist ideology. Short articles with titles such as “How to Survive in a ‘Church’ that Doesn’t Want You” were circulated, and the groups’ prayers were always deliberately inclusive. On one occasion, a litany of praise for Jewish and Christian foremothers was used to open a meeting; on another, an au- tumn day of prayer was structured completely around reflection on the lives of famous women working for peace and justice. The groups also cooperated on various specific actions, such as submitting the following proposals to an archdiocesan synod:

2.

3.

4.

1. That women be included in meetings where decisions are made which affect the Church, e.g., area councils, vicari- ate meetings. That the Church accept and promote the ministerial roles of the nonordained; for example, bereavement ministry, wake services, marriage prepara- tion. That women be included in decision- making processes on the parish level. That the Church create and encourage forms of public worship that can be led by nonordained ministers. That provision be made for just salaries for all people working for the Church. That qualified professional, nonordained ministers be encouraged to preach when circumstances or need in- dicate it, e.g., summer, funerals, wed- dings, language difficulties. That the gift of preaching of qualified

5.

6.

7.

professional ministers be recognized, called forth, and integrated into the li- turgical worship of our parishes.

8. That women be ordained to the priesthood. (Field notes, meeting of pastoral associates, 1 l/13/87)

In addition to local co-operation, the begin- nings of a national network were in evidence by 1987, with links between groups of pastoral associates in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York City and Indianapolis. Despite these at- tempts, however, most of the nuns expressed some degree of pessimism about the possibil- ity of any far-reaching change.

CONCLUSIONS

As the number of priests in the Catholic Church continues to decline, there will be more opportunities for women to work in church positions which had previously been reserved for males (Schoenherr & Sorensen, 1982, p. 49). To the extent that nuns continue to fill these positions, it is likely that their gender consciousness will spread and intensify. It does not follow, however, that this consciousness will be channeled into a feminist movement within the Catholic Church. Cha- fetz and Dworkin (1986, pp. 76, 93) point out that incipient women’s movements also require a political system (in this case, the hierarchy) which is not overly repressive. The most recent research on the attitudes of Ro- man Catholic clergy indicates an increasing conservatism, and a resistence either to the usurpation of priestly functions by non-clergy or to the admission of women into clerical ranks (Hoge, 1987, p. 187; Schoenherr & Sorensen, 1982, pp. 37,45).

An alternate response available to sisters whose increased expectations are met by resistence is to exit the system, rather than to mobilize their resources in what may very likely be a losing battle (Hirschman, 1970, p. 37). It is significant that 44 of the 51 women interviewed by Curb and Manahan (1985) had either left their religious communities or were in the process of doing so. Even those sisters who remain in their congregations may refuse to fill Church positions in which they see no likelihood for power or advance- ment. LaMagdeleine’s (1986, p. 318) research, for example, discovered that sisters

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who had been involved in parish religious education were in fact leaving this ministry. The nuns in parish ministry who were interviewed for the present study were the only respondents who spontaneously voiced plans to change jobs because of their dissatisfaction with their employers:

“I don’t know how much longer I will be in this work. I’ve been doing this for twelve years, and you wonder how much longer you can fight the system.” (Field notes, meeting of pastoral associates, l/9/87)

Since organizations often encourage malcon- tents to leave rather than put up with unwel- come criticism and efforts to change the status quo (Hirschman, 1970, p. 61), the departure of sisters from parish and diocesan positions may even be actively facilitated by the clergy for whom they work. The “exit” option may thus remove precisely those who would have been most likely to try to change the organization (Hirschman, 1970, p. 51). Indeed, between 1966 and 1982, the number of nuns in the United States declined from 181,421 to 126,000. While some of this decline is due to the deaths of elderly sisters, much is also due to the exodus of younger members (Kolmer, 1984, pp. 16, 41; Neal, 1984a, pp. 18-19).

For nuns, the interplay of loyalty and the costs of exit with the costs of remaining and attempting to change a possibly unchange- able organization may result in more com- plex decisions than adherence to a simple pro or antifeminist ideology (See Hirschman, 1970, pp. 95-105). Since it may prove impos- sible for some sisters to hold beliefs that are completely congruent with the feminist ideological “package” and still remain active in a church-related position, the nuns who do remain will have to adapt their belief structures to affirm the value and efficacy of their choice. If Women’s Studies researchers focus primarily on the most outspoken and openly profeminist nuns, they may miss a particular- ly rich opportunity to explore the developing complexity of feminism among those whose life situation diverges from that of women active in the mainstream of the movement. Like the women in charismatic pentacostal

sects (Rose, 1987) or black “holiness” churches (Gilkas, 1985), in Bedouin harems (Abu Lughod, 1985) or on North Dakota farms (Kulp, 1985), nuns who choose to remain in their congregations have developed beliefs and values which may be gender-affirming in unique ways. Each of these groups-and many others-have a contribu- tion to make to the self-understanding of mainstream feminists. As the oldest and most widespread women’s network, contemporary Roman Catholic women’s communities merit more attention than Women’s Studies research has previously given them. The present article is a preliminary attempt to advance the understanding of how and why feminist beliefs have developed among some nuns. It is hoped that future research will delineate these beliefs and values more precisely.

ENDNOTES

1. The official term for these women is “sisters” and for their groups “congregations.” However, I will follow colloquial practice in employing the terms “nuns” and “orders” as synonyms, even though, strictly speaking, the latter words should refer to cloistered monastic women.

2. According to the 1953-1954 and the 1979-1980 College and University Administrators’ Directories, 126 (in 1953) and 103 (in 1980) of the approximately 165 women college presidents in the U.S. were nuns. In the 1984 Directory of the American College of Hospital Ad- ministrators, 516 of the 1600 women active in hospital administration were nuns. Over 90% of the women CEO’s in hospitals were nuns.

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Documents

Feminist consciousness among American nuns: Patterns of ideological diffusion