Embracing Gender Equality in the Church and in the Society: Vatican II’s Reception in the International Catholic Women’s Movements (1965-1991)

This paper examines how female lay auditors’ lived experience of Vatican II contributed to the adoption of a gender equality agenda and, concomitantly, of a more explicit feminist stance by the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations, the largest movement of Catholic lay women involved in the international institutions. Because of its commitment to gender equality, the Catholic women’s organization did not limit her feminist activism to social justice and women’s liberation, but also militated in favor of women’s ordination. WUCWO’s gender equality agenda became increasingly challenged by new requests of cultural diversity in the 1980s. The complex dynamics of its reception of Vatican II highlight how the irresolute tension between two conciliar achievements –gender equality and cultural diversity.