Did women’s participation in public life begin with universal suffrage? No, of course not. But a recent Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith synodal document (say that five times fast) suggests that it did and, in an appended list of “Important Women in the History of the Church,” includes only two women with significant public roles: Ss. Helena and Joan of Arc. Bronwen McShea seeks to rectify this error, including a list of saints and queens (and saintly queens) who were both public figures and influential in Church history.
As she writes, “Perhaps, even though we are more than sixty years past Vatican II, we are still not ready in the Catholic world to truly leave behind the “clericalism” that the report condemns. This would, after all, require us to confront the possibility that a truly serious, historically grounded discussion of women’s participation in high levels of ecclesial decision-making might not have all that much to do, after all, with the suitability (or not) of women for diaconal ordination. Nor may it have all that much to do, either, with appointments of specific women—made always by popes and other high-ranking clergymen these days—to positions in the Vatican or in bishops’ chanceries.”
For further reading: McShea wrote a book about one of the influential women listed: Marie-Madeleine de Vignerot du Pont Courlay, titled the Duchesse d’Aiguillon and a Peer of France. You can read an excerpt of her book from 2023, “The Duchess Who Shaped the Fate of France.” | 
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