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We discuss a recent effort of institutional resistance in the context of the 2008–2011 Apostolic Visitation of U.S. women religious motivated by Vatican concerns about perceived secularism and potential lack of fidelity among Catholic sisters. We examined the process of and women’s responses to the Visitation to shed light on the institutional work associated with productive resistance and the role of identity and emotions in transforming institutions.

At a time when the male leadership can be blamed for leading the church to a state of crisis – a time when the voices of women are needed more than ever – even the modest roles accorded to female clerics have come under attack. The specific reasons for the investigation are unclear (or, more probably, not public), but the suspicion, clearly, can be put in the crassest terms: too many American nuns have gone off the reservation.

– Lisa Miller, Female Troubles, Newsweek, May 27, 2010

At a time when the male leadership can be blamed for leading the church to a state of crisis – a time when the voices of women are needed more than ever – even the modest roles accorded to female clerics have come under attack. The specific reasons for the investigation are unclear (or, more probably, not public), but the suspicion, clearly, can be put in the crassest terms: too many American nuns have gone off the reservation.

Labour market statistics suggest that the rate of economic activity for women in Northern Ireland is among the lowest of the UK regions. Reviewing recent research, explores possible causes, and goes on to examine similarities and differences in Catholic and Protestant women′s participation in paid work.

This chapter argues that feminist inquiries and activism must be pursued considering women’s marginalized position within a religious institution in Canada in the 21st century. Drawing on Canadian Catholic nuns’ unique accounts of their experiences with the Roman Catholic Church, this chapter brings nuance to the complicated power dynamics navigated by women religious to show how women remain excluded and exploited in various ways in their own religious institutions. We point to the institutionalized Roman Catholic Church’s long-standing control over women’s reproductive rights, as well as its ongoing prohibition and recent criminalization of women’s ordination. We also address recent structural dynamics at play by drawing attention to a recent Vatican investigation and ongoing surveillance of women religious in North America under newly established church doctrine. We view these recent tactics as evidence of the Vatican’s renewed commitment to existing gender hierarchies within the Church. Feminist intervention is especially important considering this deepening patriarchal power and how, by extension, the church is regressing rather than progressing towards gender equality, even while it shows evidence of shifting attitudes on other social issues. This chapter also underscores the implications of a global religious institution for women in Canada.

Social movements experience periods of intense activity and periods of abeyance, when collective action is very weak because of an inhospitable political climate. Non-democracies are extreme cases of hostile political environments for social movements. Drawing on a case study of the women’s movement in Franco’s Spain (mid-1930s to 1975) based on an analysis of published documents and 17 interviews, this paper argues that some non-democracies force social movements that existed prior to dictatorships into a period of abeyance and shape collective organizing in terms of location, goals, and repertoire of activities. Some social movements under prolonged non-democratic rule manage to link and transmit the aims, repertoire of activities, and collective identity of pre-dictatorship activists to those of post-dictatorship activists. This occurs mainly through cultural activities.

Unlike many of the issues raised during the Northern Ireland Civil Rights campaign of the late 1960s, employment discrimination has remained high on the political agenda, leading to two major pieces of legislation, in 1976 and 1989. Briefly examines the background to the claim of religious discrimination against Catholics, before going on to review analyses of the 1971 and 1981 censuses, the main statistical source on patterns of employment in Northern Ireland, which confirm that there are significant differentials in the socio‐economic profiles of the Catholic and Protestant communities. In addition, discusses the monitoring provisions of the 1989 Fair Employment Act and points to some current debates on how the future effectiveness of the Act should be assessed.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the association between religious affiliation and the rate of return to human capital for German men and women.

This paper employs data from the 1997, 2003, 2007 and 2011 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel for German men and women in full-time employment between the age of 25 and 54. The association between religious affiliation and wages was estimated using a conventional human capital model.

This paper finds that Catholic men (women) received a wage premium of 4 per cent (3 per cent) relative to their Protestant counterparts, even after controlling for an extensive range of demographic, economic and social characteristics.

The study contributes to the literature by providing – to the best of the authors’ knowledge – the first results on the wage premium received by Catholic men and women in the German labour market.

This chapter explores the leadership role of Catholic Sisters in Africa and the changing understanding of their role in the larger society. The study draws on field research examining the impact of a leadership training program for women leaders of Catholic Sisters in East Africa. The chapter notes how the Sisters readily identified with how leadership among local women functions in a group-based and situational manner, rather than alone or in terms of clear hierarchical protocols more typical of men.

The program encouraged the women religious to become more active in the public sector to advocate for policies related to their experience of providing services to the people to have a multiplier effect. Some were initially not too open to the idea of their Sisters engaging with politicians.

However, after completing the training program many congregational leaders came to understand the importance of encouraging their more articulate members to become proactive in promoting public policies in the areas of basic education, health, and social development.

Along this line, Major Superiors of women's congregations quickly recognized that the UN-declared Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) not only describe much of the work that their Sisters have been doing for years but also the need to prod their governments to make good on their commitments to realize them. These opened the door both for advocacy and eventual partnerships in the service of the common good of their people.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the socio-religious factors associated with unmet need for family planning among married Rwandan women, and examine individual and contextual characteristics of married fecund women influencing their contraceptive use and future intentions to use contraception.

This study employed merge data, which were extracted from 2005, 2010, 2014–2015 Rwanda Demographic And Health Survey’s individual women data sets. Characteristics of married fecund women with unmet need for family planning were compared using Pearson’s χ² test. A binary logistic regression analysis was applied to examine the influence of socio-religious factors on contraceptive use, and future intentions to use contraception among married fecund women.

Unmet need for family planning among married Rwandan women has significantly decreased over the past decade, from 39.9 percent in 2005 to 19.5 percent in 2010 and 17.5 percent in 2015. Women who are Protestants, residing in rural area, and having five or more children were significantly more likely to have an unmet need for family planning. Overall, the likelihood of having unmet need for family planning, not using contraceptives and future intentions for not using contraception was found statistically high among Protestant women compared to Catholics and low-educated women.

Unmarried women and men are not included to examine their role play and characteristics influences on family planning use in Rwanda. Investing in education of girls should be a priority for the future, without that there will not be equality in reproductive health and rights. Factors behind the recent slow motion of family planning initiatives need to be addressed in order to meet the reproductive needs and rights of all women.

Public-religious collaboration to promote nationally Natural Family Planning in all healthcare facilities is extremely needed. Since the family planning initiatives have been recently very slow, investing in behavioral change programs through mass communication seems deliberately prudent.

Investing in behavioral change programs and promoting sexual and reproductive health education would improve women’s social well-being.

This is the first-ever effort to examine the influence of the socio-religious values on family planning use among Rwandan fecund women.

Between 1965 and 1973 the percentage of married women practicing contraception in the United States increased from 64.2 to 69.9. This increase was accompanied by changing social values, increased information, and important technological innovations. The major technological innovations were the birth control pill and the Intrauterine Device (IUD), as well as new and safer techniques for female sterilization. The blossoming of private and public family planning programs in this period may also have been instrumental in the increased use of contraception.