Sometimes I think my husband must be tired of my tirades about women and injustice. But being married to a Catholic feminist, he knows I am wired to respond to the ways I witness women on the wrong side of discrimination, violence, and exploitation. As a theologian, at a moment’s notice I can slap down a dozen quotes from papal encyclicals, canon law, and the deposit of Faith that justify my claims. And yet, it seems to me that there is real and active discrimination against women in our own small circles, growing quietly from assumptions that are both un-Christian and pervasive. These are not always “big issues,” but seeds from which systemic problems arise.

I am talking here about attitudes, culled from American Puritan roots, that marginalize women’s full humanity.

My own field of theology, for instance, is male-dominated (70%) at the doctoral level and still tends to use masculine language and narrow assumptions. Despite decades of brilliant scholarship in their field, women can feel pressured to prove their intellectual worth, which means avoiding “women’s issues” as serious theology. I can’t express how frustrating it becomes when, one after another, your male colleagues approach you looking for the name of a “woman theologian” to add to a bibliography in order to appear non-sexist.

In the past weeks, my colleague Dr. Emily H. McGowin described her own scholarship in a series published by Wheaton College, where she is a theology instructor. We share the experience of having been advised that pursuing “women’s issues” in theology would marginalize our gravitas. Her comments motivated me to write this because her words are true and because I think we need to internalize them so they inform every way in which we educate others. Regarding women’s issues in the Church, she said:

"If women are image-bearers of God, co-laborers in the Kingdom, and co-recipients of the one faith, one baptism, and one Spirit of Christ, then ‘their’ issues are our issues. Women’s issues are human issues. Women’s issues are body of Christ issues. And if Jesus Christ is Lord of all, then all aspects of life are appropriate sites of theological reflection. Theologians concerned with ‘women’s issues’ are asking us to pay attention to the fullness of what it means to be human in Christ. . ." (emphasis added)

Perhaps looking at these biblical claims briefly and individually can help us internalize the truth that our Faith teaches us – all of us – about women so that, next time, we can charitably speak truth to the pastor, conference planner, colleague, or family member.

Women are image-bearers of God

Genesis 1:27 tells us that “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” In this first creation narrative, both female and male are created together as image-bearers of God. This is our human inheritance. Many of us have been influenced by opinions that the ordering of Genesis 2 (in which the woman is created second) makes her inferior. Combine this with a poor interpretation of Ephesians 5 and woman seem barely human.

But do not be deceived. In his theological anthropology, St. John Paul II explains that, not only did the woman fulfill the man’s desire for “one like himself,” but also that woman was created as “a person for her own sake” (Mulieris Dignitatem 11). A Thomistic scholar, he also argues that both male and female first share somatic homogeneity: their bodiliness (flesh and bone) indicates their humanity even before their sexual difference does. Revelation bears this claim: that woman is created in the image of God in no less manner than man.

[W]oman was created as “a person for her own sake”

Co-laborers in the Kingdom

Remember the parable of the vineyard workers who came to labor throughout the day (Mt. 20:1-6)? From our tradition of living scripture, the USCCB published a statement some years ago titled Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord which focuses on lay ministry in the Church. Appropriating the Gospel story, the first words of the episcopal letter are “God calls. We respond.” We respond regardless of the work, regardless of our sex, regardless of the cost. Both the Scripture passage and the letter are equitable: there is no indication of “women’s” work. God’s work is God’s work.

Co-recipients of one faith, one baptism, one Spirit

Notice that the sacramental words appear in exactly the same formula regardless of a person’s sex. The Church does not believe there is one kind of grace for males and another for females. For this reason, there is not a feminized form of the anointing “priest, prophet, and king.” And this is important. Because the gift is the same, the formula is the same. One baptism. One faith. One Spirit. The graces of baptism cover all human issues.

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As Catholics, we are assured in the opening claims of Gaudium et Spes (the Pastoral Constitution of the Church) that the hopes, joys, anxieties, and fears of all the people of the age are those of the People of God. Dr. McGowin’s words are all the more astute when we insert “women’s issues” into the context of these theological claims. Women’s issues are among the issues of the People of God because women are human. When men think of “women’s issues” as exceptional – when we women think of them as exceptional – we fail to appropriately reflect on our own meaning. Difference must not make us “other” but rather let us be a sign of the fullness of humanity.

I think we owe it to ourselves, our sisters, and our brothers to teach in charity what it means to claim our Christian inheritance. Sometimes this is formal. Frequently, it is by changing our own priorities and language to counter pervasive attitudes. One thing I love most is when my smart, introverted husband says something aloud which is true, just, and radically Christian – and an assimilation of the things I’ve been ranting about. Often, he says it with experiential nuance and deep conviction. And I think Dr. McGowin’s words are true: he paid attention and he understands my concerns as part of the fullness of human concerns.

I hope we never settle for a partial humanity, but in our theological reflection pay attention to what it means to be fully human in Christ.