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Gina Messina-Dysert
Gina Messina-Dysert, Ph.D. is a Feminist theologian, ethicist, and activist. She is Director of the Center for Women’s Interdisciplinary Research and Education at Claremont Graduate University.
It was nearly twelve years ago when I sat before my then pastor in pre-cana counseling and was told “how nice it is that you are trying to help women by working in a domestic violence shelter, but now that you are going to be married your role is to be a wife and mother. Working outside the home will no longer fit into your life. Your duty is to have children and care for your family.”
Our conversation continued and according to my pastor, God was not concerned with what I had to offer my community, but rather with how many children I could bear and raise as Catholic. In that moment, I was told that my life and my efforts were of little value and that having children was the one thing I could do as a woman that would make my life worthy. How funny - or sad - that in the 21st century, women’s worth continues to be tied to her womb and her work in the home.
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