Erika Bachiochi

EPPC Fellow Erika Bachiochi is a legal scholar who works at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching. She is also the editor-in-chief of Fairer Disputations, the online journal of sex realist feminism.

Bachiochi is a Senor Fellow of the Abigail Adams Institute. Her book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision was published by Notre Dame University Press in 2021.

The Rights of Women

Bachiochi’s study on feminist history uncovers an underlying reliance on the cultivation of morality. This was as much for the betterment of individuals as it was for society. Author of the Rights of Men and the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft was strongly influential in British society. Her work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in 1792, appealed for women’s education in order that they should have greater independence of mind and thus be better able to appreciate their duties and enter into marriages of reciprocal friendship.

Bachiochi makes the argument that “The trouble with the women’s movement today lies, rather, in its near abandonment of Wollstonecraft’s original moral vision, one that championed women’s rights so that women, with men, could virtuously fulfill their familial and social duties.” Wollstonecraft believed that in reforming themselves, women could reform the world. The weight she places on domestic duties is novel compared to the base regard we give it today. Reading her work, one is inspired by the heroic perseverance and resolution necessary to be a woman of purpose, particularly as wife and mother. Virtue is the measure by which all things should be judged.

Reimagining Feminism Today

My question to Erika mirrored the title of the final chapter of her book. As we find ourselves Reimagining Feminism Today in Search of Human Excellence, we again ask questions regarding men and women that are framed in virtue. This topic was key in my own research for the book Motherhood Redeemed: How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love. The conclusions point to the necessity of self-governance and independence of mind, which may only be formed through education and proper moral formation. For this reason, parents, above most, have a vital mission to cultivate these virtues in their children through guidance and nurturing care. These manifestations of human excellence are found in the fulfillment of the day-to-day responsibilities one has to God, self, family, and society, emphasizing sexual integrity, faithful marriages, and devoted parenting.

One of the essential starting points in understanding ourselves is to know our purpose and mission in this world. Understanding that shared mission of our humanity then allows us to explore our differing modes of humanity, that is as women or men. When I asked Dr. Deborah Savage to delve deeper into these points, she answered that our mission, and the mission of all Christians is to return all things to Christ, to whom they originally belonged anyway. She added that woman reminds man that he cannot make a gift of himself to a bottom line or a project. He can only make a gift of himself to another person. Both of their work must be ordered toward authentic human flourishing. “Woman’s task is to bring the divine presence into the world.” This is the model that the Blessed Mother creates for all women through her fiat.

Therefore, if a woman enters a corporate boardroom, parish office, or her own home, her task is to bring the divine presence into that room. “Woman is responsible for reminding us all that all human activity is to be ordered toward authentic human flourishing.” When pressed to answer how individual women live out their mission in their particular vocations, Dr. Savage emphasized the critical importance of a woman’s prayer life, because she can’t give what she doesn’t have. Further, she added, “Whatever I do, I do it as a mother.” This was my favorite and the most compelling line that Dr. Savage spoke to me, because I believe that spiritual maternity is the gift that women bring into all situations. This spiritual maternity is imbued in her nature as a woman and is oriented toward the care of all of humanity. Understanding this truth gives women access to fully living their mission in Christ. As Savage so eloquently articulated, “Women are the guardians of the gift of life.”

Politicians have often debated about the capacity, roles, and therefore the rights of women. Philosophers have considered the differences of women and men in their mental abilities and trajectory of potential. Yet, theologians, inspired by the wisdom of the faith and the Scriptures, ask what mankind is to God, in the created partnership of male and female, and beyond that, how each individual relates to God and finds his own way back to Him. This is why I was struck when Dr. Savage stated that the real driving force behind the question of what it means to be a Catholic woman, is “what does it me to be me?” In asking this, I am asking, “How can I live out my womanhood in a way that God had in mind when he created me?” Now this is certainly a deep question to ponder in prayer, and one that all women should be dedicating far more time to than to any political debate about women. This question should shape us.

“It’s a principle of the natural law, that we’re born already in debt to our Creator for the gift of life, and the only way to repay that debt is to become that person God had in mind when he created me.”

Have I become the person God had in mind when he created me? This question has certainly resonated with me and I believe it should challenge any area of our lives that have become lukewarm or apathetic. Let’s pause to experience the great mystery of human existence! Living within my body and soul is how I discover the meaning of creation and my place in it, not by creating my own body or my own purpose.

Lovely Lady Linens

Originally published in 1938 in German by Gertrud von le Fort, The Wedding of Magdeburg recounts the sacking of a German city, in 1630, by the Holy Roman Empire. It takes place in the wake of the Reformation and challenges both the wielding of power and religion in war. “The Wedding of Magdeburg tabulates the spiritual cost of war and shows how grace can dramatically imbue even the darkest moments of history.” The book was recently translated into English and published by Ignatius Press. I had the delightful opportunity to receive an advanced copy and read it in preparation to discuss the work with Vivian Dudro, a senior editor at Ignatius. Vivian has a great love of Le Fort’s work and is a wealth of information on the author. She has been a senior editor at Ignatius Press for more than twenty years. Prior to that, she wrote for Catholic publications including the National Catholic Register and Catholic San Francisco.

Gertrud von le Fort (1876-1971) was a German novelist and essayist. She was a baroness and attended the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Marburg. Le Fort converted to Catholicism at the age of 50, after which she wrote most of her influential works, including the Song at the Scaffold and The Eternal Woman.

Relevance: The work of Gertrud von le Fort is extremely relevant to the work that I am doing, in exploring the role of woman and mother in humanity. Le Fort visited St. Edith Stein in the Carmel in Cologne as well as exchanging letters with her. Both women were deeply impacted by the concept of woman and mother, elevated by the most perfect example of the “eternal woman,” the Blessed Mother. While The Wedding at Magdeburg does not focus on the concept of woman in the same way that Le Fort did in The Eternal Woman, she masterfully weaves in the concept of bride and mother, both in physical reality and as symbolism.

Motherhood Redeemed A Hermitage of Her Own