A Feminist Church?

M. Cathleen Kaveny lists the many ways in which the Catholic Church is a feminist church, while also raising questions about "complementarity" and other ways in which the church has sought to define women's particular gifts. Speaking of the "new feminism," she encourages young scholars to engage the work of their predecessors, and to be careful not to replicate the mistakes of the earliest generation of feminists by focusing solely on one or two issues. Read "Defining Feminism," Professor Kaveny's article for America, and her remarks at the "Contending Modernities" conference, which was sponsored by the University of Notre Dame.