Woman

DONNA. - I. NATURE AND PERSONALITY. - Philosophy, insofar as natural perfection and the dignity of the person are concerned; divine Revelation, insofar as supernatural perfection and relations with God are concerned, teach that woman is equal to man. For she possesses, like man, all the properties and faculties belonging to human personality, and she too is called to participate in the supernatural life of Grace and, through it, to attain the ultimate end: possession of the eternal reward.

This sublime equality is taught to us in Sacred Scripture: “God created man in his own image: in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27); and in the New Testament: “For all you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with 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 everything and especially with regard to the supernatural life, on the same level as man. An example is found in His relations with the two sisters of Bethany, Maria and Marta.

Although both realize humanity in its essential elements, man and woman are nevertheless separated from each other by certain differences which it would be a grave error to deny or even diminish; for God Himself willed this difference in view of the very different function to which He destined the one and the other.

Indeed, man and woman cannot maintain and perfect their equal dignity except by respecting and putting into practice the particular qualities that nature has bestowed upon each, indestructible physical and spiritual qualities whose order cannot be disrupted without nature itself restoring it once more.

In harmony with the distinctive character of man and woman, Jesus willed that in His Church only men should be called to possess and exercise authority and spiritual power, with the absolute exclusion of women, who therefore are incapable of validly receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders. All 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 in promoting 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. Precisely the great natural difference between man and woman makes it clear that it is not a requirement of natural law that woman take part in public and political life in the same way as man. It is therefore an error to say that woman’s right to vote politically, both actively and passively (as an elector and as one elected), is a natural right. Yet the opposite error must also be avoided—namely, declaring that the granting of political rights to women is contrary to natural law or to the principles of Christianity.

Since there is no doubt that good government and good legislation are also matters of great importance for woman, it follows that she has the right (and the obligation) to exercise her own influence toward this end. But besides voting, women also have other means of exercising a very great influence on the course of political life; the principal and most effective is their activity as good wives and good mothers, forming the character of their children, future citizens and perhaps future rulers.

Where, however, women are granted the right to vote, they also have the duty to make use of it—a duty all the more serious the more necessary the intervention of honest people is in that place in order to avert grave temporal and spiritual harm to the people.
III. WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE. — That woman has a social task is certain, but especially within the family. Indeed, no one does more for the temporal and spiritual well-being of her people than a good mother of a family. Certainly, a considerable number of women are called to social tasks, even though they are not wives and mothers. But they too ordinarily contribute more usefully to the good of society and the people if they choose occupations properly suited to women, for which their very physical and psychological constitution makes them apt: for example, as housekeepers, 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 entirely compatible with the duties of a married woman, whether or not she has children. The most effective means of combating this serious social evil is to keep alive—or, where necessary, to strengthen among the people—the view that, according to good morals, a married woman should not go to work outside the home, and that employers should not accept married women as workers. Clearly, there may be exceptions, as in the case of widows, for whom work is often the only means of earning enough to support the family. The common good, however, suggests dealing with such cases through a system of social insurance. The founding of a family on the earnings of both spouses is likewise an evil to be combated. In practice, it brings with it serious moral dangers, such as the virtual necessity of preventing the birth of children.

For a married woman, work outside the home is often necessary or very useful, both in order to earn a living and to avoid an idle and useless life. Here too, however, there are dangers both for society and for the woman herself. Women often occupy men’s positions, so that the latter are unemployed and remain unable to found a family; thus, indirectly, the woman closes off the path to her own vocation: becoming a wife and mother. Work in industrial factories presents serious disadvantages for a young woman, especially of a moral nature.

V. HISTORICAL NOTES

In ancient times, the woman was generally rather the servant of man and an object for his use in enjoying sexual pleasures and begetting offspring. There were, indeed, exceptions. Thus, among the ancient Egyptians, although subject to man, the woman was held in great honor; likewise, though to a lesser degree, among the Greeks and Romans. Among the Semites (Arabs, Shrei, etc.), the woman was considered inferior to man, even spiritually, and excluded from public and political life. Nevertheless, there are texts in the Old Testament that show that the married woman enjoyed a certain freedom to act, including with regard to the household economy.

Christianity, while preaching that in the family the husband is head and therefore exercises authority also over his wife, greatly elevated the personality of the woman, placing her, as was right, on the same spiritual plane as man. The honor accorded to the state of virginity led to the founding of female communities of great importance, where women held positions of authority. The Renaissance, with its pagan tendencies, and the Reformation, which did not recognize the state of virginity as an ideal of the supernatural order, brought about a decline in esteem for the personality of the woman. Modern life, with the development of industry, which has drawn women out of the home and family, has not contributed to increasing esteem and reverence for them. The ordinary participation of women in public life is a fairly recent phenomenon, just as recent is the so-called feminist movement for the equalization of women with men on the civil, social, and political levels (v. FEMMINISMO).

Canon law, in addition to the provisions of divine law (e.g., a woman does not have the capacity to receive Orders and therefore does not possess the power of Orders; from this there also follows her incapacity to possess the power of jurisdiction and to hold ecclesiastical offices: cf. CIC, canons 968 § 1 and 118), establishes various other norms concerning women: thus, they are considered pubescent upon completing their twelfth year of age and may contract marriage upon completing their fourteenth, whereas for men the age is two years higher in both cases (canons 88 § 2 and 1067 § 1); women are forbidden to take an active part in confraternities, and may be enrolled in them only to gain indulgences and spiritual graces (canon 709 § 2); associations of women, or several unions at churches or chapels of religious women, whose purpose is to devote themselves to prayer and which enjoy only communicated spiritual graces, may nevertheless be permitted by the Ordinary of the place (canon 712 § 3); except in special cases, they should not be entrusted with administering Baptism if a man can do so (canon 742 § 2); they may not hold offices relating to the administration of ecclesiastical property (canons 1520 § 1 and 1521 § 1); particular procedures are prescribed for their confession (canon 910) or for their serving at Mass (canon 813 § 2); it is established that in church they should have their heads covered and be decently dressed and, if possible, separated from men (canon 1262); in causes of beatification or canonization they may act only through a procurator (canon 2004 § 1); only a woman may be the passive subject of the crime of abduction (v. canon 2353), and only the abduction of a woman (not that of a man) constitutes an impediment to Marriage (canon 1074). For other provisions concerning married women and religious women, V. CONIUGI, DIRITTI E DOVERI dei; RELIGIONE. Pio Ciprotti

VII. WOMAN IN ETHNOLOGY

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

1. Among the peoples known as gatherers

Among these peoples, who are ethnologically the most ancient, the position of woman in relation to man is a good one, since she is considered equal to man and her activity is properly coordinated with his. There is also a suitable division of labor between the sexes: the man, as hunter or fisherman, engages in hunting, fishing, gathering honey, etc., in building the canoe, constructing a more solid house, making bows, arrows, and other tools for various tasks; he must assist his wife in caring for the children and tending the fire; he must obtain the material needed for weapons and tools, etc.; in cases of serious necessity he also procures wood and water; woman is essentially occupied with the family. Marriage is monogamous and is entered into through mutual love between the spouses, who after marriage regularly remain faithful until death. Divorce either does not exist or is rare; adultery is regarded as a great crime and is also punished by death. There is a belief, as among the Bambuti Pygmies of the Ituri, in Africa, and among the Andamanese, that God punishes adulterers with lightning, illness, and in other ways. Sons and daughters are loved equally by their parents, without distinction, and this paternal and maternal love is reciprocated by sons and daughters until death and without distinction.

The State as well, which among these peoples exists only in embryo, shows the same concern for both sexes, as is clearly manifested in its only truly solemn act, namely, the initiation of the youth of both sexes. This consists in education in traditional religion and morality, in the customs and usages of the clan, and finally in the declaration of adulthood, with the right to marry, if they are judged suitable on the basis of the initiatory trials. The sole difference is that the clan chief and the council of elders — wherever this organization exists — are made up of men and not of women, although the chief’s wife enjoys the same honors as her husband. Indeed, under the laws of separation of the sexes observed among some of these peoples, whereby an elder brother belongs to the ascending generation and may not speak or have any relations whatsoever with the wife of a younger brother or with a relative of the descending generation, she has the same authority as her husband over all the women of the clan who are younger than she.

Thus, in the most ancient civilization, because of this situation of natural equality between the sexes and their relative and harmonious social activity, woman is truly man’s companion, wife, and mother. This situation of equality, however, is no longer observed, or is observed only rarely, as will be briefly shown, in the economically and socially superior civilizations, which therefore acquire truly special characteristics and represent human experiments, extraordinarily rich in profound instruction.

2. Woman among nomadic shepherds

She is an eternal minor; before marriage she depends on her father; after marriage she depends on her husband; upon his death she depends on her eldest son. Sons inherit; daughters do not. Since pastoralism is an entirely masculine activity and requires unity of action and a large number of livestock if the family is to survive, the overwhelming authority of the head of the family developed, as did the desire to have a large number of male children and the perceived necessity that they remain under paternal authority even after their marriage, in order to tend the numerous flocks. Woman therefore becomes economically insignificant, especially among those pastoral peoples where women are even forbidden to milk the animals. If a shepherd had no children or had only daughters, he would consider himself unfortunate. One sign of woman’s inferior position is the purchase of the bride, since in contracting a marriage the groom’s family must pay a sum to the bride’s family, although pastoral peoples wish to deny this act the character of a purchase. While polygamy is permitted to the man, chastity is required of the woman, and her adultery is judged severely. This virtue of chastity certainly entails the exercise of virtue and self-mastery by the woman. Among nomadic shepherds the initiation of the youth no longer exists. As the family expands considerably, with five, nine, or more generations of blood relatives and their wives, the life of the State (tribe) is reduced almost to nothing. The authority of the head of the family becomes despotic, and the freedom of the children is diminished; indeed, it is taken away from them entirely in marriage, which is arranged solely by the parents, or rather, generally by the head of the family through intermediaries. This despotism is manifested especially in the right of life or death over sons and daughters. If one considers that among pastoral peoples marriage is in itself monogamous and, as such, founded upon religion; that the spouses’ fidelity until death is the rule; that divorce is rare; and that adultery is a grave crime, which may also be punished by death, one will readily understand that woman’s position, if not legally, at least in practice, is fairly good. The civilization of the nomadic shepherds is the most important of all in human history, because through its intermingling with other civilizations it gave rise to great states and empires, which we know particularly from history.

3. In totemist civilization. — Here the scholar is immediately struck by the great preeminence of man, by the exaltation of his strength, his warlike and brutal instincts, and his sexual passion; woman is in a position of abasement and great inferiority and becomes above all an instrument of man’s pleasure. Yet it is precisely in this civilization that one can clearly observe the meaning and importance of female forces and activities in the formation of the human personality and in the ordered organization of society; one can also see what field is reserved for woman and what her proper domain is. The totemist economy is based on the great hunt, and this is an entirely masculine occupation, together with all the activities connected with it; woman performs housework and other secondary activities. Woman is like an eternal minor, without any rights. Through initiation the young man is separated from his mother and his family and placed in the house of the circumcised young men; from then on he must observe the laws of separation of the sexes, that is, the prohibition against meeting, staying together, conversing, or living together, even when they are husband and wife. Thus, among the Tugheri of New Guinea, the husband may work partly with his wife, but he may not live with her; he may live only with the other elders of his age. The initiation of young women does not exist, and where it does exist it is sexual in character, like that of the young men. These and all adults are divided into age classes, which often also find their counterpart in the groupings of the women of the clan; among the Tugheri, for example, these begin for girls at eleven or twelve years of age. In this case there are not only houses for young men but also houses for young women, with access by the other sex prohibited. Among other totemist peoples, such as the Masai of East Africa, these houses serve the opposite purpose, because 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.

However important the manifestation of social progress achieved in totemist civilization may be from the standpoint of free and state associations, this progress came at a high price: it occurred at great harm to woman and the family. In totemism the perversion

moral corruption led to religious corruption and gave great development to magic and superstition.

4. In matriarchy. — Contrary to what occurs in totemism, woman here occupies a position such that, in the earliest stages 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 support of the family by gathering the spontaneous fruits of the earth and vegetable foods, turned her attention to cultivating the soil, 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 work, as well as of pottery and weaving, which are her inventions and which she transmits by inheritance to her daughters. Sons and daughters belong to their mother’s family and tribe and take its name. The husband does not live with his wife; since he belongs to his own mother’s family, he is like a stranger in his wife’s family and is regarded as such by the children as well. From time to time he goes to visit his wife; this was indeed the practice in Japan until the seventh century after Christ. In this first form of matriarchy, the brother or the oldest member of the family occupies a special position within the family in relation to the sister’s children, who are often in very close social relations with him, as though he were their father; for the sister, moreover, he becomes her representative. The maternal uncle continues to occupy this special position with respect to his nephews, his sister’s children, even when the husband, at another stage in the development of matriarchy, goes to live with his wife, as occurs, for example, among the Ciam of French Indochina; indeed, he leaves his property not to his own offspring but to his sister’s offspring, who therefore did not inherit from their own father.

5. In mixed cultures. — From what has been said, it follows that the position of woman, apart from the equality found in almost all manifestations of life in the most ancient civilizations, is one of inferiority, more or less profound, both among totemist peoples and cattle breeders and among matriarchal peoples, as a reaction on the part of the male sex. This situation changes when such peoples come to interbreed with one another. Ethnology teaches that when totemism is mixed with matriarchy, the position of woman becomes considerably worse. In fact, the totemist, who despises woman in herself, noticing the advantage he can derive from the woman who cultivates the soil, will seek, guided by his organizing spirit, to acquire as many women as possible in order to make them work.

When nomadic shepherds interbred and mixed with peoples of other civilizations, States and empires were formed, as has been said, with the often flourishing development of material, social and intellectual culture (writing and literature, law, science, philosophy and art), formations and development due to the dominative and organizing power of the shepherds and to the coexistence of totemist industry and art with matriarchal agriculture. The new civilizations resulting from this interbreeding and mixture assume very varied forms, according to the power and the capacity for absorption and resistance of the totemist and matriarchal peoples who were organized and dominated. In making a general judgment of this civilization, one may say that outward or intellectual civil development did not bring with it an elevation of the human person, because, generally speaking, a right and harmonious correlation between family and State, and between male and female activities, was lacking, and there was a moral and religious regression. The inferior position of woman either does not change or becomes more profound and humiliating. Indeed, the harem of kings, emperors, princes and the wealthy arises; polygamy, concubinage and the enslavement of women, and, for various reasons, of men as well, become systematic.

6. Concluding considerations. — From the rapid survey made of the different types of human civilization from the female standpoint, it emerges clearly, first of all, that every human progress is necessarily and naturally linked to the harmonious correlation between man and woman, and between family and State. While admitting the identical nature and fundamental equality of rights, one must recognize the differing social functions of the sexes:
DONNA - DONNET FERDINAND-FRANÇOIS-AUGUSTE

l'attività dell'uomo è principalmente nella società e nello Stato, quella della d. nella famiglia. Vi sono delle leggi, poste da Dio creatore nella natura umana, che l'uomo deve riconoscere e seguire, convenientemente, per vivere una vita bene ordinata e raggiungere il fine della famiglia e dello Stato e soprattutto la perfezione della sua personalità, perfezione voluta da Dio e a cui deve tendere tutta l'attività familiare, sociale e statale, come a suo fine naturale per la glorificazione di Dio, creatore e fine dell'universo.