The Church and the Second Sex

by Mary Daly

First published in 1968, The Church and the Second Sex represents one of the most important critiques of sexism in the Christian tradition.

Genres: Feminism, Religion, Nonfiction, Theology, Philosophy, Christianity, Womens

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Mary Daly was an American radical feminist philosopher, academic, and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at Boston College, a Jesuit-run institution, for 33 years. Daly consented to retire from Boston College in 1999, after violating university policy by refusing to allow male students in her advanced women's studies classes. She allowed male students in her introductory class and privately tutored those who wanted to take advanced classes.

Reviews

[Dhanaraj Rajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vehement attack on the Church by the feminist theologian. It is an outcry poured out with force.

[Amy Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I have read so much feminist work, I appreciate Daly's work in the contextual sense. For her time she broke open the discussion in a profound way. I think it is encouraging that the discussion has shifted since then. I do, however, keenly feel the need for feminist work to continue to grow in robustness and reach. Like Daly says, echoing Virginia Woolf, she longs for the sister of Plato and Aristotle and others who do great work and even more. While I know that Daly has consciously broke with the Catholic tradition and indeed, the Church at large, I know there is much to be done self-consciously within the tradition. It is, however, due in part to Daly's work that feminist work in the Church is a discussion. And her post Christian objections are important to hear and engage with as feminists in the Christian tradition plot a way forward.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a heavy heart, yet grateful beyond words for her life and work,
I report that Mary Daly died this morning, January 3, 2010 in
Massachusetts. She had been in poor health for the last two years.

Her contributions to feminist theology, philosophy, and theory were
many, unique, and if I may say so, world-changing. She created
intellectual space; she set the bar high. Even those who disagreed
with her are in her debt for the challenges she offered.

She always advised women to throw our lives as far as they would go.
I can say without fear of exaggeration that she lived that way
herself.

May her spirit soar and her ideas endure.

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 3 out of 5]

How should women live out their Christian faith? What roles or offices does Christianity permit women to have? These kinds of perennial questions are regularly raised among Christians, with some churches like Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and the Southern Baptist Convention (post-conservative resurgence) forbidding women from being ordained to the clergy while the Protestant Mainline and egalitarian evangelicals have opened up ordination to women.

Mary Daly is an important figure in conversations around the role of women in the Catholic Church. A pioneer of feminist theology, she eventually left the Christian faith altogether, proudly declaring herself a "radical lesbian feminist." Chris Damian, a gay Catholic writer, has suggested that "Catholicism in recent years has been more comfortable dealing with disagreements and suspicions of heterodoxy within itself" compared to traditional Protestantism but on women's ordination I think evangelicalism is better positioned to interrogate biblical interpretation and tradition and come to a Scriptural understanding and theology of women's ordination (on this see especially William Witt's magisterial 'Icons of Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Theology of Women's Ordination'). In Daly's case, the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood likely wouldn't have kept her within the bounds of Rome; though 'The Church and the Second Sex' is fairly modest in its recommendations and birthed out of the aftermath of Vatican II's "aggiornamento!", Daly appears to be more influenced by the likes of Simone de Beauvoir, James Pike, and Paul Tillich than more orthodox figures who advocated for reform of women's roles in Christianity like Elisabeth Behr-Sigel and Paul King Jewett while not abandoning wholesale essential Christian dogma.

As an evangelical egalitarian there is much in 'The Church and the Second Sex' that I agree with, though Daly tends to go farther than I would. For instance, some forms of contraception I believe are permissible for Christians to use and there is a strong case to be made for abortion if the mother's life is endangered but I reject the birth control pill and so-called "therapeutic abortions" that are often quite subjective. I am in agreement with Daly on women's equality and her citations of tradition and papal statements on women's (in)equality should give every modern believer pause before merely accepting these teachings (while also contextually receiving the past's beliefs). Many of Daly's arguments would be familiar to evangelical egalitarians. Interestingly, despite Daly's staunch demands for women's ordination, she sharply criticizes the Protestant Mainline that WAS ordaining women to the pastorate because she deemed it guilty of "false inclusion" that only gave women MASCULINE roles rather than roles that celebrated women's distinct femininity in the pastorate; better, in Daly's mind, to still be Catholic and not navigate through the vague feminist tokenism of the Mainline (I'd point out that some evangelical movements even before the mid-twentieth century had made ample space for women's contributions, such as the work of Phoebe Palmer and Catherine Booth in the holiness movement and the powerful, prolific preaching of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, p. 42).

The two prefaces (including the "Feminist PostChristian Introduction") are very weird, very cringe. I am glad I persevered through it though since the main body of 'The Church and the Second Sex' is a valuable book to read, especially as it encapsulates many of the revolutionary, radical hopes of Catholic feminists in the wake of Vatican II and social reforms in the wider Western culture.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

DALY'S FIRST BOOK, WITH A LATER INTRODUCTION BY HERSELF

Mary Daly (1928-2010) was a radical feminist philosopher and theologian who taught at Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years; she retired in 1999, after a discrimination claim was filed against the college by two male students who claimed to want to be admitted to her advanced Womens Studies courses.

She also wrote the books 'Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation,' 'Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism,' 'Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy,' 'Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language,' 'Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage,' 'QUINTESSENCE: Realizing the Archaic Future A Radical Elemental Feminist Manifesto,' and' Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big.'

This book was first published in 1968, and this edition includes a (1975) "Feminist Postchristian Introduction" by Daly (where Daly wrote of her 1968 self in the third person).

Here are some quotations from the (229-page 1975 edition) of the book:

"The question that comes to my mind is, 'What sense does it make to assert that in Christ "There is neither male nor female"? ... But that is the point: it could not mean anything on earth, where there definitely were and are females and males and where that distinction has been overemphasized and distorted, especially in the church." (Pg. 22)
"One of (Daly's) contemporary critics argued that she had been selective in exhuming only misogynistic texts from the so-called Fathers of the Church. His assumption was that there were some philogynistic texts to be found. Clearly, Daly wins hands down since no scholar of her time nor of any period since has been able to find such texts to refute her position." (Pg. 23)
"Briefly, if God is male, then the male is God." (Pg. 38)
"Women discovering self-actualization in sisterhood in 1975 ... rarely talk of 'partnership' with men, since this term seems to imply ... as if we could glimpse nothing more desirable than an equal slice of the patriarchal pie." (Pg. 41)
"There is no small irony in the fact that during an age in which opinion of women was so low, some of them were, in fact, members of the hierarchy, whereas in a later and more enlightened age, when the Church itself is urging them to take a more active part in public life, they are completely excluded from the hierarchy." (Pg. 90)
"If women's subordination were really so 'natural,' it would not be necessary to insist so strongly upon it. It would seem that people would not have to be told authoritatively to behave 'naturally.'" (Pg. 116-117)
"...that dream world which is precisely the 'metaphysical world of woman,' the ideal, static woman, who is so much less troublesome than the real article... For the celibate who prefers not to be tied down to a wife, or whose canonical situation forbids marriage, the 'Mary' of his imagination could appear to be the ideal spouse." (Pg. 161)

[fausto · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Mary Daly's book I ever read was her A-mazing Gyn/Ecology. From that point I have read her most "original" books (that is, those that have her unique philosphy/theology and use of language). I was very reluctant to read this book, because it have the fame of being a "liberal feminist book" previous to Daly's radical feminism, or Second Spiral Galaxy. But I found this book to be very Dalyan in fact.
First of all, the modern versions of the book start with the author's "Feminist postchristian introduction", in which Daly read herself as a different author pointing out the reformist perspectives of the book, but as she recognizes, this book was, in fact, very radical at the time it was published.

The book has a lot of contemporary issues (the catholic perspective around birth control, abortion, female priesthood, and traditional [historical] debates and perspectives of female divinity) and the main theme of Daly's later works is very present: transcendence, the integrity of being, the exorcism of patriarchal ways of thinking. By the time it was published very few books (if any) were available on women and religion, even in this century in which feminist theology have become a common area of reasearch and perspective, "The Church and the Second Sex" maintains the roots of feminist criticism to the catholic church, and (unfortunately) the whole picture has change very little.

[Aidan Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was too critical of Daly’s theology at the beginning, because I ended up loving it! So much of the reform work towards a pedagogy of hope was really wonderful.

This comprehensive dialogue with de Beauvoir was thrilling, it truly felt like each perspective was given delicate care and attention. Such a wonderful work of tight writing and sharp wit, while maintaining a provocative theological grounding throughout. Also TIILLICH GOT SOME LOVE! “Systemic Theology” and this book had a kind of familial relation to me, especially regarding the work done respectively on symbols and the Christian viewpoint! The way the enteral feminine and the little girl are mutually violent images in the Christian worldview, dehumanizing and creating difference towards women discretely. I wish Daly would’ve given the Vatican II more of a treatment, it got kind of passed over.

Want to read more Mary Daly!

[Nao ♡]

i forgot to add this i read it for school in September

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

At least as relevant as it was at the time of its publication.