}

1982 Women's Ordination Conference

By Carol Stringer

In 1977, I thought the issue of women's ordination in the Roman Catholic Church was the radical issue of the times. That year's Cleveland Women's Ordination Conference was a real high for me. In 1978, I walked out. The question of women's equality in the Church had become for me, as Mary Daly so bitingly stated, "like Blacks seeking equality in the Ku Klux Klan". The 1978 Conference seemed to confirm my worst suspicions about the future of the issue: it was top-heavy with male clerical and theological "advice," naive in its expectations, seemingly unaware of the existence of feminist theologians, and very determined to be clearly "different" and separate from the "secular" women's movement. A good deal of effort was expended on not offending the powers that be, reflecting the "good Catholic girl” behavior I had so recently and traumatically rejected.

For the next four years I immersed myself in the study of feminist theology. (For those who still think that all theology is the art of counting. how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, I offer Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza's definition of feminist · theology—“a critical theology of liberation”—and defend its scope as a psycho-sexual-politicaleconomic-ecological analysis of patriarchy and its religious roots. It is this and more, but that is another story.) Because feminist theology is about doing/theorizing, I was also engaged in working at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, helping to found what is now Templum House (a women's and. children's 'shelter), and completing a Master's in religious studies, not to mention working out new relationships in my family.

There were very few spaces in which the connections I needed for support could be made. The peace , movement forced me to a grudging admiration for the Christian approach to most injustices, but most of my religious associates were both carelessly and deliberately anti-femimist. Most of my feminist friends, on the other hand, were understandably antireligious.

Just in time to save my sanity, however, 1 discovered Grailville, near Cincinnati, Ohio, a women's center with both Catholic roots and a radical feminist consciousness which has become, over the years, a real home to me. There I find the best in feminist thought, both within and outside the Catholic tradition, a positive attitude toward the present tensions which exist between feminism and religious institutions, and an atmosphere of creativity encouraging yet-undreamed alternatives.

This rather long prologue has been necessary to explain why I chose not to do an "objective" report on the 1982 Cleveland Regional Conference on Women's Ordination, for though I heard nothing in the lectures that was particularly new to me, hearing. them here, in this setting, was an unexpected sur-.. prise. I say this, I hope, not with a self-satisfied "well, now you've finally seen the light" attitude, but with joy and relief that there are no more illusions bere. Despite, "too radical" objections by some, the 1977 plea of Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, that her sisters see "how bad it is" before setting their goals, was taking hold. Here were:

-Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza and her radical analysis of patriarchy's division of women by their various relationships to men and her encouragement of women to minister to each other;'

-Madonna Kolbenschlag with her in-depth analy-

Page 2/What She Wants/December, 1982

sis of myth in its innate misogyny as well as its creative potential to liberate;

-Arlene Swidler and her positive appraisal of the contributions of Catholic women (Mother Jones was Catholic!);

-Mary Hunt with a global view of women's oppression which put the present concern in perspective, and a positive interpretation of the results of delayed ordination in the Roman Catholic Church-that of strengthening women's bonds to each other.

Notable also was the representative of the new national leadership of the conference, Marcie Sylvestro, a woman of intense creativity and humor with a gift

for ritual that can only be described as electric (magical?).

I find myself, then, to some degree "back in the fold" (How many of us are really successful in rejecting our roots? Should we be?) of a prophetic organization that is beginning to validate women's particular experience as well as confronting the very meaning of church. The local Cleveland group will be facing many critical questions in the next year, not the least of which concerns their current identity. 1. have great hope that it will not be polarized by radical/reformist conflict, but will learn to be com(continued on page 13)

Women Last Hired, First Fired

By Pat Randle

The tough economy that's brought a 10.4 percent jobless rate to the nation as a whole is taking its toll on management workers as well-and women managers are harder hit than their male counterparts. The 4.6 percent unemployment rate for women in management is far below the national average, but is notably higher than the 3:6 percent rate for managers overall.

The reasons why women managers are bearing more of the unemployment burden than men include employment patterns of women in management, decreased federal support for affirmative action, and the attitudes of the women themselves, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.

When women managers were hired and where in the company they work play a role in their higher rates of layoff, the Journal reports. Because many women hired or promoted under affirmative action programs lack seniority, they're the first to be let go when economics dictates a cutback in personnel. In addition, the fields in which women are more likely to manage--personnel, public relations, marketingare among the first to be sacrificed when a company has to tighten its belt.

Further, companies now feel less pressure from the. federal government to conform to affirmative action standards for hiring, promoting and keeping on personnel, the Journal reports. Companies used to be "less prone to fire women because they were afraid of problems arising," says the head of a Chicago firm that counsels dismissed managers.

If that ever was true, it's not any longer, according to many women in management. "The political climate makes it easier for them to engage in those 'good ol' boy' biases that were there when I started to work 12 years ago," a 33-year-old former controller told the Journal. And when several hundred qualified people apply for an opening, how possible is it to prove sex discrimination?

The loss of a job is hard for anyone to take, but some counselors say that it's even tougher for women than for men, since women are more likely to blame themselves and not the economy. Being laid off ca bring to the surface feelings that women may havẹ had to begin with, "that they were a fraud,,that they `didn't really belong there anyway," said psychologist and personnel consultant Marilyn Machlowitz.

Finding work in the recession requires an aggressive approach. It also calls for the ability to deal with rejection. Some women, particularly those who are márried and don't need their salaries to survive, put off or opt out of re-entering the job market. They

may find going back to school or pursuing their individual interests preferable to facing the rough-andtumble world of today's job market. "They want to go back to the security of not having to battle it out,” according to job consultant Doris Krepp.

Other former managers take jobs that offer less pay and responsibility than their previous positions, just to pay the rent. A Chicago personnel manager who lost her job last January accepted a job paying $4,000 less than her earlier one. "It does affect your self-esteem in general," she said to the Journal. "1 felt I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to return to my field in a relatively short period of

(continued on page 12)

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