The rights of women

It is almost 40 years ago since the Second Vatican Council in its closing message predicted: “The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved.”

There have been great advances in the pursuit for social equality between women and men since those heady days of transformation. At least in westernised society, many women are occupying, in unprecedented numbers, positions of influence and power—albeit, appallingly, often without their remuneration reaching parity with that of men in equivalent positions.

In westernised culture particularly, there is a growing understanding that regards the social equality of the sexes as self-evident, and the discrimination of women as unjust—less than a century after women were given the vote. This is welcome, but we must continue to challenge all notions that women are somehow inferior to men.

Of course, for Catholics and other believers, the rights of women, as all rights must be, is balanced against the rights of others. In that way, Catholic thought is incompatible with certain issues that are often seen to form part of the women’s rights programme, such as abortion. While Catholics cannot support some elements of that programme, their support for the legitimate aspirations of women and opposition to their discrimination must not be diminished.

The Church has a special appreciation of women’s procreative and nurturing functions, but it also encourages women to make a significant contribution in the public domain.

Pope John Paul II in apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (1988) wrote: “When women are able fully to share their gifts with the whole community, the very way in which society understands and organises itself is improved, and comes to reflect in a better way the substantial unity of the human family. Here we see the most important condition for the consolidation of authentic peace. The growing presence of women in social, economic and political life at the local, national and international levels is thus a very positive development.”

South African women have made great progress in occupying leading positions in politics, business and the media. The days when the appointment of a woman was seen as an extraordinary event are fading.

Sadly, there still are times when the gender of a leading woman provides the premise for attacks on her. So it was shocking when Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille was insulted in coarsest misogynist terms by political opponents earlier this year.

The verbal violence directed at Mrs Zille echoes the physical, sexual and emotional violence, or the perpetual fear of it, experienced by very many South African women. A country in which a reported 60% of women may expect to become a victim of sexual violence cannot consider itself as being anywhere near accomplishing gender justice, regardless of the number of female politicians, CEOs and newspaper editors.

At the root of gender imbalances in South Africa is a patriarchal society in which women, even if protected by civil law, are commonly prevented from exercising their rights, in particular their sexual autonomy.

Nor can the Catholic Church present itself without qualification as being at the vanguard of the struggle for gender equality. Leaving aside the divisive issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood (which in any case is grounded in a theological framework), the scarcity of women in key positions in the Church should be a source for determined reflection.

The hierarchy’s attitude to gender finds expression not only in statistics.

For example, the recent instruction by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which banned altar girls in the Tridentine Mass, communicates that for some in the Catholic Church, negligible matters of liturgical culture precede the advancement of gender equality. The decision did little to make female Catholics feel any more like full members of the Church.

The Church must include women—religious and lay—in decision-making positions, and argue forcefully for the emancipation of women where they are subjugated, and the equality of women where they are discriminated against.