Fighting the War on Women

As a board certified Ob-Gyn, I have deep concerns about our secular society, its messages to and about women, and its implications for our families.  I hope that with serious prayer, we can sift through the untruths and return to the Truth through faith and reason.

I have cared for women for over thirty years and delivered babies for seventeen of those years. I have worried with patients through their miscarriages and preterm labor, and rejoiced with their normal deliveries. I discuss benign and premalignant findings with patients and their families every day. The pain, sorrow, joy and happiness of my patients’ lives pass through my office daily.

As a physician, mommy, and wife, I turn to the experts for personal and professional inspiration.

Let’s start with Mother Teresa. She knew no matter how hard the work was, that prayer and courage and discipline were crucial. She did not let her ego or agenda stop her or her sisters from their prayer and worship and adoration for our Lord. The “war on women” can take hold only when we are too busy to pray and pay attention.

Let’s move on to Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Women. He wrote: “Thank you, every woman, for the simple fact of being a woman! Through the insight which is so much a part of your womanhood you enrich the world’s understanding and help to make human relations more honest and authentic.”  He understood what he called the “feminine genius.” He believed in the courage and fortitude of women. He also understood and wrote about how each of our gifts are different. We are made in the image of God — wonderfully and beautifully made.

Contrast this Catholic perspective with what our culture has taught us in the last 30-40 years. The feminist (as opposed to feminine) agenda took our childbearing dignity away and defined women’s value only as workers, with a de-emphasis on her role as mother and center of the domestic Church. Degrees, status, salaries and materialistic achievements became paramount, with far reaching implications.  Single women became disconnected from their spiritual motherhood. Cohabitation and contraception became the norm. Many Catholic women find themselves infertile or sterilized and in unfaithful marriages, joining their secular friends in many of society’s woes.

In the 1940’s, Cardinal Mindszenty wrote a lovely book called The Mother. To paraphrase, the mother is the center of all culture and is the most important person on earth. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul.

So what are we to do today to fight this cultural war on women?

1) Pray with Faith. Pray and pray often with discipline, in and through your work,   whatever your station in life.

2) Love deeply and tenderly. We women can use our “feminine genius” with our eyes on the Lord to love those around us. Sometimes this might be difficult and sacrificial—we must ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to aid us.

3) Have Courage and Hope. Pray to St. Gianna Molla, St. Joan of Arc, St. Edith Stein, St. Bernadette and all of your personal favorite saints. They were all different. So are we. The Lord gave you your own special gifts. Use them! Use them in the workplace, in your home, in your marriage, in your parish, and in all your relationships.

Speak up for the dignity of the women. Study and pray and then bravely go forward in femininity.