The Dignity of Every Human Life: Catholic Thought and Catholic Women’s Action from 1945-1980

Abstract

This dissertation examines the National Council of Catholic Women from 1945-1980 and explores the organization’s activities which were based on a framework of the inherent dignity of every human life. It argues that the women of the NCCW believed that all human life was sacred and had inherent dignity. That foundational belief shaped the NCCW’s activism and explains why the group operated outside of traditional US political parties. The NCCW had a place in mainstream politics in the immediate post-war period, but as political issues changed the NCCW maintained its own course. The structure of the NCCW as an independent organization for Catholic women within the US Council of Bishops allowed the group to speak for American Catholic women as a group. As an all women organization, the NCCW fit into the mold of other difference feminist organizations like the Women’s Divisions of the Democratic and Republican Party as well as labor feminists. As the Catholic Church put the changes of Vatican II into practices, all female spaces became less important for Catholic women. They no longer needed the NCCW to have a say in church affairs and instead joined non-gendered parish organizations. Despite the decreased size of the NCCW, the foundational ideas about the dignity of the human person and the ensuing activism can still be seen in Catholic activism to this day.