DONNA

WOMAN. —

I. NATURE AND PERSONHOOD

Philosophy, insofar as it concerns natural perfection and the dignity of the person, and divine Revelation, insofar as it concerns supernatural perfection and relations with God, teach that woman is equal to man. For she possesses, like man, all the properties and faculties belonging to human personhood, and she too is called to participate in the supernatural life of grace and, through it, to attain her ultimate end: possession of eternal reward.

This sublime equality is taught in Sacred Scripture: “God created man in his image: in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27); and in the New Testament: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:27–28). From the manner in which Jesus treated woman, it appears that He placed her, in all things and especially with regard to supernatural life, on the same level as man. An example is found in His relations with the two sisters of Bethany, Mary and Martha.

While both man and woman realize humanity in its essential elements, they are nevertheless distinguished by certain differences that would be a grave error to deny or even diminish; for God Himself willed this difference with a view to the quite distinct function to which He has destined man and woman.

Indeed, man and woman cannot maintain and perfect their equal dignity unless they respect and put into practice the particular qualities that nature has bestowed upon each, physical and spiritual qualities that are indestructible, and whose order cannot be overturned without nature itself restoring II.
In keeping with the distinctive character of man and woman, Jesus willed that in His Church only men should be called to possess and exercise spiritual authority and power, with the absolute exclusion of women, who therefore are not capable of validly receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders. All of this is carried out by men, not because woman is less than man, but because woman is different from man.

II. WOMAN IN PUBLIC LIFE

No less than man, woman is a member of society, both civil and ecclesiastical. Therefore, she too has the right and duty to exercise her own influence for the common good. What may be asked of woman, according to the norms of a just distribution of burdens, depends on many factors: her character, natural gifts, and the special tasks to which the Creator has called her. It is precisely the great natural difference between man and woman that shows that it is not a requirement of natural law for woman to take part in public and political life in the same way as man. Therefore, it is an error to say that woman’s right to political suffrage, in both active and passive senses (the right to be elected and to elect), is a natural right. It is likewise an error to declare, on the contrary, that the granting of political rights to woman is in conflict with natural law or the principles of Christianity.

Since there is no doubt that good government and good legislation are matters of great importance even for woman, it follows that she has the right (and duty) to exercise her own influence toward this end. But besides voting, there are other ways for woman to exercise a very great influence on the course of political life, and the principal and most effective of these is her activity as a good wife and good mother, forming the character of her children, future citizens and perhaps future rulers.

Where, however, the right of suffrage is granted to women, they also have the duty to make use of it; a duty all the more grave insofar as the intervention of upright persons is more necessary in a given place to avert serious temporal and spiritual harm to the people.

III. WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE

That woman has a social role is certain, but above all within the family. For no one contributes more to the temporal and spiritual well-being of a people than the good mother of a family. Certainly, a considerable number of women are called to social tasks even if they are not wives and mothers. Yet even these women ordinarily render greater service to the good of society and the people if they choose work that is properly feminine, to which they are suited by their physical and psychological constitution: for example, as governesses, nurses of every kind, schoolteachers, directors or assistants of children’s colonies, and the like.

IV. WOMAN AND WORK

It is not in itself contrary to morality for a woman to work outside the home (in factories, banks, offices, etc.). It is clear, however, that such work is not well compatible with the role of a married woman, whether she has children or not. The most effective means of combating this grave social evil is to keep alive, or where necessary to strengthen in the people, the conviction that, according to good morals, a married woman should not work outside the home and that employers should not accept married women as workers. It is clear that there may be exceptions, as in the case of widows, for whom work is often the only means of earning a livelihood to support a family. Yet the common good suggests providing for these cases through a system of social insurance. The founding of a family on the earnings of both spouses is also an evil to be combated. Such a practice carries with it grave moral dangers, such as the near necessity of avoiding the birth of children.

For a married woman, work outside the home is often necessary or very useful, both to earn bread and to avoid an idle and useless life. Yet here too there are dangers, both for society and for the woman herself. Often women occupy positions that men might fill, so that men are unemployed and prevented from founding a family, and thus indirectly woman closes off her own path to her proper vocation: to become a wife and mother. Work in industrial factories presents serious disadvantages for young women, especially of a moral order.

V. HISTORICAL NOTES

In ancient times, woman was generally rather the servant of man and an object for sexual pleasure and procreation. There were, to be sure, exceptions. Thus, among the ancient Egyptians, woman, though subject to man, was held in great honor; similarly, though to a lesser extent, among the Greeks and Romans. Among the Semites (Arabs, Hebrews, etc.), woman was considered inferior to man even spiritually and excluded from public and political life. Yet there are texts in the Old Testament that show that a married woman enjoyed a certain freedom of action even in matters concerning the economy of the household.

Christianity, while preaching that in the family the husband is the head and therefore exercises authority even over the wife, greatly elevated woman’s personhood, placing her, as was right, on the same spiritual plane as man. The honor given to the state of virginity led to the founding of important female communities in which woman exercised roles of authority. The Renaissance, with its pagan tendencies, and the Reformation, which did not admit the state of virginity as an ideal of the supernatural order, provoked a decline in the esteem for woman’s personhood. Modern life, with the development of industry that has drawn woman out of the home and family, has not contributed to increasing esteem and appreciation for her. The ordinary participation of woman in public life is a rather recent phenomenon, as is the so-called feminist movement for the equalization of woman with man on the civil, social, and political planes (v. FEMINISM).

VI. WOMAN IN LAW

Modern law (unlike that of other eras) accords to woman a position little different from that of man, and in particular recognizes in her almost the same legal capacity (q.v.) as that recognized in man. There are, however, various differences, especially in public law (in many States woman is not granted the right to vote or eligibility, or else her capacity to hold public offices or positions is very limited), and to a lesser extent in criminal law.

Canon law, in addition to provisions of divine law (e.g., woman does not have the capacity to receive Orders and therefore neither the power of order; from this also follows her incapacity to exercise jurisdictional power or hold ecclesiastical offices: cf. CIC, can. 968 § 1 and 118), establishes various other norms regarding women: thus they are considered of age at the completion of the twelfth year, and may contract marriage at the completion of the fourteenth, while for men the age in both cases is two years higher (can. 88 § 2 and 1067 § 1); women are forbidden to take an active part in confraternities, being admitted to them only to gain indulgences and spiritual graces (can. 709 § 2); however, associations of women or unions near church or oratories may be permitted by the local Ordinary for the purpose of prayer and may enjoy only spiritual graces (can. 712 § 3); except in special cases, they should not be entrusted with administering Baptism if a man can do so (can. 742 § 2); they may not hold offices related to the administration of ecclesiastical goods (can. 1520 § 1 and 1521 § 1); particular modalities are prescribed for their confession (can. 910) or for their serving Mass (can. 813 § 2); it is established that in church they should have their heads covered and be decently dressed, and, if possible, separated from men (can. 1262); they may not act in causes of beatification or canonization except through a procurator (can. 2004 § 1); only a woman can be the passive subject of the crime of raptus (q.v.; can. 2353) and only the raptus of a woman (not that of a man) constitutes an impediment to marriage (can. 1074). For other provisions regarding married women and religious women, see respectively CONIUGI, DIRITTI E DOVERI dei; RELIGIONE. Pio Cipriotti

VII. WOMAN IN ETHNOLOGY

The subject will be treated from the ethnological standpoint by examining the situation of woman, not among individual peoples, but among the various types of culture as established by ethnology.

1. Among so-called gathering peoples

Among these, who are ethnologically the most ancient, the position of woman in relation to man is good, being considered equal to man and her activity rightly coordinated with his. There is moreover a suitable division of labor between the two sexes: the man, as hunter or fisherman, engages in hunting, fishing, gathering honey, etc., in building canoes, constructing more solid houses, making bows, arrows and other tools for various tasks; he must assist his wife in caring for the children and in tending the fire; he must procure the necessary material for weapons and tools, etc.; in case of serious need he also gathers wood and water; the woman is essentially occupied with the family. Marriage is monogamous and based on mutual love between the spouses, who, after marriage, regularly observe fidelity until death. Divorce either does not exist or is rare; adultery is considered a grave crime and punished even by death. There is the belief, as among the Bambuti Pygmies of the Ituri and among the Andamanese, that God punishes adulterers with lightning, disease and other means. Sons and daughters are equally loved by their parents without distinction, and this paternal and maternal love is reciprocated by the children until death and without distinction.

Even the State, which among these peoples is only in its embryonic form, has the same care for both sexes, as is clearly manifested in its only truly solemn act, namely the initiation of the youth of both sexes, which consists in education in traditional religion and morality, in the customs and traditions of the clan, and finally in the declaration of majority with the right to marry, if they are judged fit by the initiation tests. The only difference is that the chief of the clan and the council of elders — where such an organization exists — are composed of men and not of women, although the wife of the chief enjoys the same honors as her husband. Indeed, because of the laws of separation of the sexes observed among some of these peoples, whereby an elder brother is a person of the ascending generation and cannot speak or have any relations with the wife of a younger brother or a relative of the descending generation, the wife of the chief has the same authority as her husband over all the women of the clan who are younger than herself.

In the most ancient civilization, therefore, because of this natural equality of the sexes and their relatively harmonious social activity, woman is truly the companion of man, the spouse, the mother. This situation of equality, however, is no longer observed, or only rarely, as will be briefly seen, in economically and socially superior civilizations, which therefore acquire truly special characteristics and represent human experiments rich in profound lessons.

2. Woman among nomadic shepherds

She is an eternal minor; before marriage she is dependent on her father; after marriage she is dependent on her husband; at his death she is dependent on her eldest son. Sons inherit; daughters do not. Since pastoralism is an entirely masculine activity requiring unity of action and a large number of livestock for the family to survive, the authority of the head of the family has become

The desire to have a large number of sons and the need for them to remain under paternal authority even after marriage to tend the numerous flocks led to the wife becoming economically insignificant, especially among pastoral peoples, where women were even forbidden to milk. A shepherd without children or with only daughters was considered unfortunate. A sign of the inferior position of women was the purchase of a bride, for in contracting a marriage the groom’s family had to pay a sum to the bride’s family, though pastoralists denied that this act had the character of a purchase. While men were permitted polygamy, women were required to be chaste, and their adultery was judged severely. This virtue of chastity certainly demanded of women the exercise of virtue and self-mastery.

Among nomadic pastoralists, there was no longer any initiation of youth. The family, expanding greatly with five, nine, or more generations of blood relatives and their wives, reduced the life of the state (tribe) almost to nothing. The authority of the father of the family became despotic; the freedom of the sons diminished, indeed was completely taken from them in marriage, which was arranged solely by the parents, or rather generally by the head of the family through intermediaries. This despotism manifested itself especially in the father’s right of life and death over sons and daughters.

If one reflects that among pastoral peoples marriage was in itself monogamous and, as such, founded on religion, the fidelity of the spouses until death was the rule; divorce was rare; adultery was a serious crime that could even be punished by death, one will easily understand that the position of women, if not legally, at least practically, was fairly good.

The civilization of nomadic pastoralists is the most important of all in human history, for in its interaction with other civilizations it gave rise to great states and empires, which we know especially from history.

3. In totemistic civilization

Here the preeminence of men immediately strikes the scholar, the exaltation of his strength, his warlike and brutal instincts, and his sexual passion; women are in a state of degradation, of great inferiority, and become above all an instrument of male pleasure. Yet precisely in this civilization one can observe well the significance and importance of feminine forces and activities in the formation of human personality and in the orderly organization of society; one can also see what field is reserved for women and what is her own realm.

Totemistic economy is the great hunt, which is entirely a masculine activity with all the attendant pursuits; women have the work of the home and other secondary activities. Woman is like an eternal minor, without any rights. With initiation, the young man is separated from his mother and his family and placed in the house of the surrounded young men, and from then on he must observe the laws of sexual separation, that is, the prohibition of meeting, associating, conversing, or living together, even as husband and wife. Thus among the Tugeri of New Guinea, the husband may work in part with his wife but cannot live with her, only with the other old men of his age.

The initiation of young women does not exist, and where it does, it is of a sexual character like that of the young men. These and all adults are divided into age classes, which often find their counterpart also in the groupings of women of the clan, which, for example among the Tugeri, begin for girls at the ages of 11–12. In this case there are not only houses for young men but also for young women, with a prohibition of access to the opposite sex. Among other totemistic peoples, such as the Masai of East Africa, these houses serve the opposite purpose, for here the young men of the tribe are permitted to choose a young woman or a group of young women with whom they may have sexual relations, so that the young women of the tribe become a kind of prostitutes.

Thus, however important the manifestation of social progress achieved in totemistic civilization may be in terms of free and state associations, this progress was purchased at a high price, namely, it occurred with great harm to women and to the family. In totemism, moral perversion led to religious perversion and gave great development to magic and superstition.

4. In matriarchy

Women, in contrast to what happens in totemism, occupy here a position such that in the earliest studies of the development of this civilization, that is, until man reacts, it brings about the degradation of man as such and as father. Woman, who in the most ancient culture contributed to the sustenance of the family by gathering the spontaneous fruits of the earth and vegetable foods, thought to cultivate the land in order to obtain them through her own labor, thereby giving rise to agriculture. Naturally, woman became the owner of the field, the granary, the house, and the tools of labor, of pottery and weaving, which were her inventions and which she transmitted in trust to her daughters. Sons and daughters belonged to the mother’s family and tribe and took her name. The husband did not live with his wife; belonging to his mother’s family, he was like a stranger in his wife’s family and was so regarded even by the children. From time to time he would visit his wife; this was precisely the case in Japan until the 7th century after Christ.

In this first form of matriarchy, the brother or the eldest of the family occupied a special place in the family with respect to the children of the sister, often having very close social relations with them as if he were their father; for the sister, he became their procurator. The maternal uncle continued to occupy this special place with respect to the nephews, children of the sister, even when the husband, at a later stage of matriarchal development, went to live with his wife, as happens, for example, among the Cham of French Indochina; indeed, he left his property not to his own children but to the children of his sister, who therefore did not inherit from their own father.

5. In mixed cultures

From what has been said, it follows that the position of women, except for that of equality in almost all manifestations of life in the most ancient civilizations, is one of inferiority, more or less profound, both among totemistic and pastoral peoples as well as among those of matriarchy as a reaction of the male sex. This situation changes when such peoples come to mix with one another. Ethnology teaches that when totemism is mixed with matriarchy, the position of women worsens greatly. Indeed, the totemist, who directs women for his own benefit, observing the utility that can come to him from women as cultivators of the soil, will, guided by his organizing spirit, seek to acquire as many women as possible to make them work.

When nomadic shepherds crossed and mingled with the peoples of other civilizations, states and empires came into being, as has been said, with the often flourishing development of material, social, and intellectual culture (writing and literature, law, science, philosophy, and art). This formation and development were due to the dominative and organizational strength of the shepherds and to the coexistence of totemist industry and art with matriarchal agriculture. The new civilizations, resulting from this crossing and mingling, assumed very varied forms, that is, according to the power and the capacity for absorption and resistance of the totemist and matriarchal peoples, who were organized and dominated. In giving a general judgment of this civilization, it can be said that the external or intellectual civil development did not bring with it an elevation of the human person, because there was generally lacking a just and harmonious correlation between family and state, between masculine and feminine activities, and there was a moral and religious regression. The situation of inferiority of woman does not change or becomes deeper and more humiliating. Indeed, the harem of kings, emperors, princes, and the rich arises; polygamy, concubinage, and the slavery of woman—and for various reasons also of man—become systematic.

6. Concluding considerations

From the rapid glance that has been given to the different types of human civilization from the feminine aspect, it clearly results, first of all, that every human progress is necessarily and naturally linked to the harmonious correlation between man and woman, between family and state. Even admitting the identical nature and the fundamental equality of rights, it must be recognized that the sexes have different social functions:

Man’s activity is primarily in society and in the state, woman’s in the family. There are laws, placed by the creating God in human nature, which man must recognize and follow appropriately in order to live an orderly life and attain the end of family and state and, above all, the perfection of his personality. This perfection is willed by God and toward it all family, social, and state activity must tend as to its natural end for the glorification of God, creator and end of the universe.