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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
One of the most important social realities today, one which holds theological importance is the well documented and yet chilling fact of the feminisation of poverty. With the increasing global and national polarisation of poor and rich, the majority of the newly poor continue to be women and children. Overwhelmingly, women with children spend the major portion of their lives in a downward spiral, struggling for economic survival for themselves and their children. Politically, these same women hold little or no social power.
This social reality of the feminisation of poverty in the USA finds its counterpart in the Catholic Church in the economic relationship between the institutional church and women, particularly women religious. In this articler I will first describe the social process of the feminisation of poverty. Second I will briefly demonstrate how and why U.S. congregations of women religious partake in this social process through their relationship with the institutional Church. Finally I will discuss what implications this has for the theology of religious life, for women and for the Church.
1 Quoted from United Nations Programme of Action 1980 in Schaffer, The Feminisation of Poverty: Prospects for an International Feminist Agenda, unpublished manuscript. These statistics are also cited in Hannelore Schroder's ‘The Economic Impoverishment of the Mothers is the Economic Enrichment of the Fathers’ in Women Work and Poverty Concilium, 1987, 194:10.
2 WIN Women's International Network (Mass: Summer, '91)
3 Schroeder, Hannelore, ‘The Economic Impoverishment of Mothers is the the Enrichment of Fathers.’ in Concilium 1987, 194:12Google Scholar
4 Lenz, Elinor and Myerhoff, Barbara, The Feminisation of America: How Women's Values are Changing Our Public and Private Lives, (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tardier, Inc., 1985)Google Scholar
5 1988 Annual Report —Retirement Fund for Religious Tri‐Conference Retirement Office (Washington, D.C.:1988) p. 1 The Tri‐Conference comprises representatives from the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.
6 A few statistics will detail the ratio. In 1990, 608 congregations received financial grants, 483 of these were women's congregations, 125 were men's; in 1991 624 congregations received grams 486 were given to women's congregations, 138 to men's congregations. A grant is awarded for the number of religious over age 50 ×$221. For more specific details consult the Annual Tri‐Conference Report for the years 1988, 89, 90.
7 “The remedial efforts are providing results. For those looking at the present facts, the cash and investment pool for retirement has gone up … On the surface, more money to attend to a smaller population is a positive sign. However, behind the numbers is a less optimistic story. The increase in retirement monies is not likely to continue more than five to ten years into the future. When it reverses, the decline in retirement funds will be swift.' Auditor's report in the Retirement Needs Survey of U.S. Religious‐III (USCC: Wash. D.C., 1990). p. 5Google Scholar
8 Economic Justice for All National Conference of Catholic Bishops (Washington, D.C.:1986) no. 347.
9 A comparison could be made here that religious brothers are similar to women religious, they also do not have guaranteed Church work for spirit‐led vocations. However, most brothers belong to orders that include priests therefore they directly benefit from the stipends of the ordained (guaranteed work) ministry. The common denominator is being male.
10 Lau, Ephrem Else, ‘Women Religious and Lay Women as Workers in the Church’ in Women, Work and Poverty (Concilium: Edinburgh, 1987) 194:82Google Scholar
11 Art. 8 in Decree on the Approprite Renewal of the Religious Life (Perfectae Caritatis) in The Documents of Vatican II ed. Abbott, E.M., (London and Dublin: 1966)Google Scholar.
12 Ibid Art. 6
13 ‘Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.’ Justice in the World, Synod of Bishops, Rome, 1971.
14 Today, 65 percent of American nuns have master's degrees and 25 percent have doctoral degrees. Only 24 percent of American bishops have master's degrees, and only 10 per cent have doctorates.' Ferraro, B. and Hussey, P. No Turning Back (New York: Poseidon Press, 1990) p 62Google Scholar.
15 Fiorenza, Elizabeth S., Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984). pxvGoogle Scholar.
16 Yvone Gebara, Option of the Poor as option for the Poor Women in Concilium 194:110) ‘Poor, even though it refers primarily to a social group deprived of material goods, can be expanded to include an impoverished culture, voiceless minorities without rights, groups seeking elementary recognition in society. Women are included in this expansion of the term poor.’
17 Economic Justice for All (Wash, D.C.: USCC) No. 24.
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