Online Symposium: Schiltz on Larry Summers, John Paul II, and Gender Balance at Catholic Universities

My friend and former colleague, Lisa Schiltz, a law professor at St. Thomas, has contributed to our ongoing symposium on Pope John Paul II's jurisprudential legacy her essay, "Why Larry Summers Should Have Had the Pope Review His Draft:  The Implications of John Paul II's Teachings for Gender Balance at Catholic Universities."  Here is a taste:

One of the most puzzling things to me about the controversial remarks that the President of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, made this past January at the conference on Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce was how someone so smart could have said such thoughtful things in such a clumsy and stupid way.  As a Yale graduate, of course, my first impulse was to seize the obvious explanation – maybe the President of Harvard just isn’t really that smart.  But that’s not really an explanation that would probably convince anyone outside of

New Haven

,

Connecticut

, so I quickly discarded that one.  My second thought was to muse a bit about the timing of the whole controversy.  The furor over President Summers’ comments erupted just around the same time that Pope John Paul II first was admitted to the hospital for the beginning of the respiratory difficulties that ultimately led to his death.   Of course, it turns out that Summers’ remarks had been made a month earlier and only started getting widespread attention about the time of John Paul’s hospitalization, but the coincidence of timing got me to thinking – would Pope John Paul II have agreed with President Summer’s remarks?   Or could Summers have avoided getting caught up in this controversy if he had passed a draft to the Pope, and gotten some comments, before he gave that infamous speech?

I am going to explain why I think that, if Summers had informed his talk with some ideas from the writings of John Paul about the role of women in the public sphere, he might, indeed, have avoided some of the firestorm in which he subsequently found himself, or at least blunted some of the reaction.  My interest in this topic, however, goes beyond either defending or attacking Summers and his comments.   Obviously, what Pope John Paul II said about the role of women in the public sphere is irrelevant to either Summers or to his institution.  However, these Church teachings should be of great relevance to Catholic universities, and, indeed, to all Catholic institutions that hire men and women.   I believe that John Paul’s teachings on the importance of the family and the role of women, both within the family and in the public sphere, if taken seriously by Catholic employers, should spur significant workplace restructuring to accommodate the needs of working parents – fathers and mothers – far beyond what is mandated by federal and state laws. . . .

A Catholic university that took seriously these teachings would look a little different most Catholic universities –  indeed, most universities –  generally look today.  Remember the two basic arguments.  First, the preservation of the family is crucial to solving many of contemporary society’s most critical problems, and the work of preserving the family – primarily the work of mothers – needs to be properly valued by society.   Second, women have unique contributions to make in solving many of contemporary society’s most critical problems, and women must have access to the public sphere in order to make these contributions.   Put these two together, and the Catholic universities should have no choice but to institute structures to accommodate working mothers. . . .

Rick