Where are the Women? A Feminist Rhetorical Criticism of Jesuit Discourse

Abstract

Opening Paragraph|Integrating feminism of women into an inherently patriarchal 2,000-year-old religious organization has been one of the tasks of the Catholic church as it has moved into the 21st century. This has been inexplicably complicated by the deity of the faith being a male, celebrated by all but guided by a tradition of a male-only apostolic lineage. How do women, who for centuries were relegated to the domestic sphere, find their place in the church? There are religious orders for women to bind themselves to the Catholic tradition. Yet, they are still a form of domestication with minimal, low-level authority and leadership in the church. What is left for the women who sit in the pews looking up to the altar?