Media spotlight for Heythrop's 'Catholic feminism' expert

The Director of Heythrop College's Religious Life Institute has participated in a global online debate for International Women's Day (8 March).

Writing on the Reuters website, Dr Gemma Simmonds explored the role of women in the church and the question of gender. "I know many fine, intelligent, gifted women within the Anglican priesthood who are still struggling to fit the way they see and feel and think about things into a mould not made for them," Dr Simmonds wrote. "When the discourse in any group is dominated by men and what is considered the norm is based on male experience and perceptions, then the perspective, ways of doing things and concerns specific to women tend to be seen as trivial or irrelevant. Women become invisible in contexts where their experience is not thought to be significant. This can be unconscious, embedded so deeply into the internal culture of a group that the women in it themselves barely notice anymore that so much operates against their natural grain."

Click here to read the full article.

Dr Simmonds is no stranger to the national media spotlight. On 4 March she presented BBC Radio 4's 'Friday Act of Worship' for Women's World Day of Prayer. She is also the Press Officer for the English province of the Congregation of Jesus, a women's religious order modelled on the Jesuits, and is routinely quoted on issues relating to Catholic feminism.

In addition, Dr Simmonds is highly active on the external speaking circuit, most recently talking about the role of women from the Catholic perspective at a Presentation Sisters conference in Ireland (4-5 March), and leading interactive debates on young women's aspirations in schools up and down the country. In her spare time, Dr Simmonds volunteers in the chaplaincy team at Royal Holloway prison.

Heythrop's Religious Life Institute has a growing reputation for its work on the future of religious orders. "We study the needs of our time, how to respond to the crisis in confidence in the church resulting from cases of sexual abuse, but also how to respond positively to those with a vocation to religious life in the contemporary context," Dr Simmonds said. "We also research the role of women in the church and society generally, and specifically the position on women taken by decision-makers within the Catholic church."