The Gender Studies Program at Notre Dame is no stranger to controversy. It has been the target of many Rover articles over the years, including several written by myself. In response, many concerned students and alumni have called for Notre Dame to get rid of the department altogether.
Now, more than ever, Notre Dame needs a Gender Studies department. But she owes it to her students to provide a better one.
Certainly, from lectures on “Queer Poly Homemaking” to faculty affiliations with contraceptive distribution on campus, the university’s Gender Studies Program has proven itself worthy of criticism. But Catholics cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater—we must reform, not exterminate, the study of the sexes at Notre Dame.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to sit down with a student in the Gender Studies department to discuss all things sex and Notre Dame. Our conversation was incredibly enlightening—I was able to hear an insider’s perspective on the faculty members, classes, and programming I often critique. I learned about the department’s efforts to educate female prisoners and speak out against sexual violence on campus.
But the most shocking part of our conversation was that the student had never heard the Church’s teachings on sexuality, marriage, or womanhood.
At first, I could not believe what I heard. I decided to look for myself, convinced that the student had simply picked the wrong classes. But after a review of the Gender Studies’ website and course offerings, the reality became clear: Catholic teaching on sexuality is far from represented in this part of our Catholic school.
The word “Catholic” appears on the Gender Studies website only once. Catholicism is mentioned a single time—not in the course requirements or mission statement, but in the equal opportunity employment clause, copied and pasted from the Office of the Provost.
This semester’s Gender Studies class offerings tell the same story. Of 49 courses available, only one uses the word “Catholic” in its PATH description … as an adjective to describe the university. Even the seemingly promising class “Marriage and the Family” omits any reference to Church teaching, promoting instead “a sociological approach to studying the family.”
The language of Notre Dame’s Gender Studies Program is indistinguishable from that of any secular university. Compare our mission statement to Yale’s “Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies” description. Contrast our classes with those offered in Harvard’s “Studies of Women” program. You will find no discernible difference.
Notre Dame’s indifference to Church teaching does a grave disservice to students and faculty alike, making the department a caricature of authentic study. How can a Catholic university give any student a degree in “Gender Studies” without ever mentioning Catholic teaching on gender?
This failure is not due to a lack of resources. The Catholic Church has a rich history of analyzing the nature of human sexuality, from (quite literally) the beginning, in the book of Genesis. From Proverbs to the Paul’s letters, the entire Bible is packed with statements on the relationship between men and women.
Christian theologians throughout the centuries have engaged with and expanded upon the Bible’s foundations in sexuality and gender theory. Clement of Alexandria, among others, articulated a Christian understanding of men and women as distinct sexes with a shared human dignity around 198 A.D. Similarly, several Church Fathers, including Origen and St. Augustine, affirmed the dignity of men and women before God in the early third and fourth centuries. Many of the Fathers, such as St. Gregory of Nazianzus, directly opposed discrimination against women as early as the fourth century.
Catholic inquiry into the nature of and relationship between the sexes continued to proliferate in modern times, culminating in Pope Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. The series includes 129 lectures by John Paul II on human sexuality, covering topics from physical desire to the philosophy of parenthood. John Paul II carefully summarizes and builds on thousands of years of Church teaching to articulate a clear vision for the role of women in society—a vision of equality, dignity, and responsibility.
This past fall, I took a course entitled “Catholicism, Sex, Law, and Politics” that explored the depths of Church teaching on gender and equality. The class was new to Notre Dame and co-taught by two Catholic female professors who drew on their own experiences as wives and mothers. It was not offered by the Gender Studies Program, but as a collaboration between the political science, constitutional studies, and theology departments. We compared the writings of early and late stage feminists along with the saints and Church fathers on gender and society.
This example—a syllabus that engages contemporary thought while grounding itself squarely in the truth of Catholic theology—should serve as the model for the Gender Studies department as a whole. Faculty can continue to discuss important questions about sex and gender armed with the answers provided by the Church. Rather than “linking the field of transgender studies with global justice movements,” professors should ask how we can value the dignity of every individual while affirming their created nature. Instead of studying “gender performativity and queer temporality,” students should explore the vocations of men and women in a fallen world.
Modern debates and secular philosophies have clouded the truth about human sexuality. Young adults, and college students in particular, are searching for an explanation behind the physical realities they experience every day—What does it mean to be a woman? How does masculinity affect your vocation? Why should I get married at all?
As a Catholic university, Notre Dame is uniquely suited to answer these questions for her students. Unlike her secular peers, she knows the truth. It is her duty to teach it.
Haley Garecht is a senior studying political science, constitutional studies, and Irish studies. Please send any tips, comments, or questions to hgarecht@nd.edu.