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Pope’s preface to a volume on women’s leadership
Equality in diversity
We reproduce below Pope Francis the preface to the volume
“More Women in Leadership for a Better World: Caring as an Engine for our Common Home,”
edited by Anna Maria Tarantola, published by Vita e Pensiero in 2022.
The text is the result of research work by an international group of professors and experts from the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities – led by Sacred Heart Catholic University – and the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, coordinated by Tarantola herself.
The book was presented in Rome on Friday, 10th March 10, at 2:30 p.m.
at the Maria Santissima Bambina Institute.
This book is about women, their talents, skills and abilities, and the inequalities, violence and prejudices that still characterize their world.
Women’s issues are particularly close to my heart. I have referred to them in many of my speeches, emphasising how much remains to be done to fully empower women.
I have had occasion to say, among other things that “Men and women are not equal and one is not one superior to the other, no. It is she who brings the harmony which teaches us to caress, to love with tenderness and that makes the world a beautiful thing” (Homily at Santa Marta, 9 February, 2017).
We need harmony so much to fight injustice, blind greed that harms people and the environment, and unjust and unacceptable war.
This book gathers the results of joint research, sponsored by Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation and the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities, in which 15 academics from different disciplines belonging to 10 universities and residing in 8 countries participated.
I like that the fact that the topic is approached from a multi-disciplinarity perspective, different approaches and analyses allow a general hearing, a broad view of the problems and the search for better solutions.
The research highlights the difficulties that women still face in reaching top positions in the world of work, but also the benefits of their greater presence and full participation in the economy, politics and society spheres.
The Church, too, can benefit from the advancement of women: as I said in my speech at the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops of the Panamanian Region in October 2019, “we have not realised what women mean in the Church and we limit ourselves only to the functional part […]. But the role of women in the Church goes far beyond functionality. This is what we must continue to work on. Far beyond.
A better, fairer, more inclusive and integrally sustainable world cannot be pursued without the contribution of women. Here then we must all work together, to open up equal opportunities for men and women, in every context to pursue a stable and lasting situation of equality in diversity because the road to women’s affirmation is recent, troubled and, unfortunately, not final.
It can easily be reversed. Women’s thinking is different from men’s, they are more environmentally conscious, their gaze is not turned to the past but to the future. Women know that they give birth in pain in order to achieve great joy: to give life and to open up vast new horizons. That is why women want peace, always. Women know how to express both strength and tenderness at the same time; they are good, competent, prepared; they know how to inspire new generations (not only their children).
It is only fair that they should be able to express these abilities in all sphere, not only in the family, and that they should be paid the same as men for the same role, commitment and responsibility. The gaps that still exist are a grave injustice. These gaps, together with prejudices against women are at the root of violence against women.
I have condemned this phenomenon on many occasions.
On Sept. 22, 2021, I said that violence against women is an open wound, the result of a patriarchal and macho culture of oppression.
We must find the cure to heal this scourge, not leave women alone.
The research presented in this publication and the conclusions are aimed at healing the scourge of inequality and, by extension, violence.
I like to think that if women could enjoy full equality of opportunity, they could contribute significantly to the necessary change toward a world of peace, inclusion, solidarity and integral sustainability.
As I said on International Women’s Day on 6 March 2019, women make the world more beautiful, protect it and keep it alive. They bring the grace of renewal, the embrace of inclusion and the courage to give of themselves.
Peace, then, comes from women. It rises and is rekindled by the tenderness of mothers.
The dream of peace becomes a reality when we look to women.
I believe, as research shows, that equality must be achieved in diversity.
Not equality because women adopt male behaviors, but equality because the doors of the field of playing field are open to all players, without differences in gender (and also in color, religion, culture…). This is what economists call efficient diversity. It is nice to think of a world where everyone lives in harmony and everyone can see their talents recognized and contribute to making a better world. The ability to care, for example, is undoubtedly a feminine trait that should be able to be expressed not only in the sphere of the family, but also with excellent results also in politics, business, science and work.
The ability to care must be expressed by all of us, men and women. How beautiful is the family where both parents, mothers and fathers together take care of their children, help them to grow up healthy and educate them in respect for people and things, in kindness, in mercy, and in the protection of creation.
I also like the mention of the importance of education.
Education is the best way to provide women with the skills and knowledge they need to face the new challenges of the world of work, and to facilitate the change in the patriarchal culture, that still prevails.
Unfortunately, even today, some 130 million girls around the world are still out of school.
There is no freedom, justice, integral development, democracy and peace without education.
