Video: The Feminine Genius and Rethinking Gender Roles
From Our Free Video Program: Cultivating Catholic Feminism
About the Presenter: Abigail Favale is Dean of Humanities at George Fox University, and the author of Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion. Her latest book, The Genesis of Gender, will be published by Ignatius Press in early 2022. In addition to writing and presenting the educational material of this program, Abigail also wrote our program prayer Heroines of the Faith.
This lesson with Dr. Abigail Favale is a part of our free video program Cultivating Catholic Feminism. Sign up for the program at the link below.
Video Transcript
Discussions about gender, particularly in Christian circles, tend to revolve around the question of roles. Should men and women have separate, gender-specific duties in the home? Are there jobs or professions better suited to each sex? Should women work outside the home at all?
Let’s start with the question of women’s roles in the professional sphere. To quote Edith Stein, a 20th-century philosopher-saint also known as St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, “there is no profession which cannot be practiced by a woman.” Does this mean men and women are simply interchangeable, with no meaningful differences between them? No—but the differences are not so stark and oppositional that certain occupations are entirely off-limits to women (or to men for that matter). Edith Stein proposes that women can bring a certain perspective, a distinctive kind of wisdom, to any profession. St. John Paul the II, who was influenced by Stein, calls this “the feminine genius.” John Paul identifies women’s genius as an attention to the personal and the particular; women have a gift for seeing and safeguarding the human person, particularly those who are most vulnerable.
It's important to note that the feminine genius is not simply an instinct or default setting that every woman has—rather, it is a capacity that needs to be recognized and actively developed. And this genius can be lived out in countless ways. You can see the feminine genius at work in a CEO who cares about people as much as profit, or a doctor who is attentive to her patients as whole persons. This is not about miming feminine stereotypes, or limiting oneself to specific roles. This “genius” of women is needed in every sphere—the public sphere, the domestic sphere, the Church—in order to build a culture of life and a “civilization of love.”
What we do for a living is usually dependent upon circumstances outside of our control, circumstances that are historically and culturally determined—such as the economic system we live under, or the kinds of employment opportunities available. An authentically Catholic understanding of gender roles can’t be completely tied to a particular culture or economic situation, but must apply across cultures and eras to be truly universal. That is why, for Catholics, a vocation is not a career, but refers to one’s state of life. Edith Stein identifies three specific vocational pathways: marriage, consecrated religious life, or singleness in a secular setting. This state of life provides the context, the frame, in which we live out the universal human vocation: self-giving love. Any professional work, such as being a nurse or a writer, is mapped on to that more fundamental vocation. The tendency in our culture to define oneself by a career is not a Catholic way of seeing things, but one shaped by—as sociologist Max Weber puts it—the protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism.
For those who are called to marriage, the home—not the workplace—should be the center of gravity. This holds for both men and women. It is true that the roles of husband and wife, mother and father are not interchangeable, because these roles involve one’s full personhood, including the body with its sexual distinctiveness. But those personal “roles” do not translate into an exhaustive list of gender-specific duties. Only one gender can lactate, yes, but either can change a diaper or hold a bottle or load a dishwasher. When it comes to tasks that are not sex-specific, there can be mutuality and fluidity in terms of who performs them. Remember: men and women are whole persons, each empowered with reason and individual giftedness, so there can be wisdom and creativity in how they choose to order their family life. If the home is ideally a kind of domestic church or monastery, the husband and wife together must write their Rule of Life, exercising their intellect and understanding to discern what is best for their particular situation.
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