What is the Role of Women?

by CAPP-USA

The Catholic Church emphasizes women’s dignity, equality, and unique vocation.

She sees a woman’s role as multifaceted and indispensable: equal in dignity to men, gifted with a “feminine genius” for nurturing life, and called to serve as mothers (physically or spiritually), family builders, and transformers of society.

Modeled on Mary (the “perfection of what is characteristic of woman” (Pope St. John Paul II, 5)) women reflect God’s love and mercy in a unique way — which is always rooted in the complementarity of the sexes.

A Woman’s Role Springs from her Dignity

The Church teaches that women and men are equal in dignity – both are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Discrimination based on sex is rejected: “The woman cannot become the ‘object’ of ‘domination’ and male ‘possession’.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 10)

This was affirmed by Vatican II: “all men [humans] possess a rational soul and are created in God’s likeness, since they have the same nature and origin, have been redeemed by Christ and enjoy the same divine calling and destiny, the basic equality of all must receive increasingly greater recognition.” (Gaudium et Spes, 29)

Indeed, “Dignity is a priceless good, an innate quality, which no human law can give or take away” (Pope Francis) and “I always speak of the dignity of women”. (Pope Francis)

Equality ≠ Sameness

However, equality does not mean sameness. The Church highlights a complementarity between men and women, where each has distinct but equally valuable roles.

This is not a limitation but a reflection of God’s design for humanity.

“[In] order to know oneself well and develop harmoniously, a human being needs the reciprocity of man and woman. When that is lacking, one can see the consequences.” (Pope Francis)

The Unique Genius of Women

Pope St. John Paul II introduced the concept of the “feminine genius”. (Mulieris Dignitatem)

This genius refers to a woman’s unique capacity to nurture, love, and humanize society and is tied to her physical and spiritual potential for motherhood which “involves a special communion with the mystery of life”.

“This unique contact with the new human being developing within her gives rise to an attitude…not only towards her own child, but every human being”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 18)

Even women who do not bear children biologically experience this through spiritual motherhood—caring for others with tenderness and generosity — a role that extends beyond the family into society: “The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way.” (Mulieris Dignitatem, 30)

Thus, she “becomes an irreplaceable support and source of spiritual strength for other people, who perceive the great energies of her spirit” and “are owed much by their families, and sometimes by whole nations.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 30)

Women’s influence is spread across all spheres of life!

What is the Role of Women in the Church?

“The Church is feminine, she is bride, she is mother.” (Pope Francis) And “we need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church”. (Pope Francis, 103)

Pope Francis identifies that the Church consists of “three principles, two theological and one administrative.”

The “Petrine principle” is ordained ministry. “And why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that.” (“The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion”). (Pope Francis, 104)

However, “the church cannot function only with [the Petrine principle]” and “that the woman does not enter into the ministerial life is not a deprivation. No. Your place is that which is much more important”.

“[T]he Church also has a ‘Marian principle'”: This is “the principle of femininity (femineidad)…where the church sees a mirror of herself because she is a woman and a spouse.”

“Woman is more, she looks more like the church, which is mother and spouse” and it is a problem that “we have yet to develop the catechesis about women in the way of the Marian principle.” (22 November 2022 interview) 

Why women can never be ordained priests

The Bottom Line

The “human being is entrusted by God to women in a particular way“. (“Was it not in and through [a woman] that the greatest event in human history – the incarnation of God himself – was accomplished?”) (Pope St. John Paul II, 31)

“The Church acknowledges the indispensable contribution which women make to society”. (Pope Francis, 103) And, “We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman.” (Pope Francis, Interview, America Magazine, 30 September 2013)

While “The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness” (Pope St. Paul VI) yet, “There is no doubt that we must do far more to advance women”. (Pope Francis)