Faculty Publications

Power in the Margins: Gendered Organizational Effects on Religious Activism

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Review of Religious Research

Volume

42

Issue

1

First Page

41

Last Page

60

Abstract

Focusing on the social contexts of Catholic nuns' and priests' civil rights activity in southern Illinois in the late 1960s, we examine how organizations with different (and gendered) structures foster various activities or consequences in their members' lives. Not only did the movement activity of the nuns and priests vary by gender, but more importantly, movement activity had different (gendered) effects on these participants' lives. The nuns were able to continue their activism within their religious order, but many priests encountered resistance within the diocese and chose to leave the priesthood. Two interrelated factors contributed to the different effects of the nun' and priests' activism: (1) the distinct institutional locations of nuns and priests within the Catholic Church; and (2) the organizational constraints on leadership. These factors are crucial to understanding why movement activities had such different effects on the lives and careers of these participants. The view that all social relations are gendered...opens the possibility that many apparently gender-neutral processes are sites of gender production. Organizational processes of different kinds may carry within them patterns of gender difference and subordination.

Department

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Original Publication Date

1-1-2000

DOI of published version

10.2307/3512143

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