| Woman’s Distinctive Soul |
| Along with St.
Thomas and Aristotle, Stein acknowledged that there are traits unique to
the human soul, abilities (or at least dispositional traits) that are shared
by every member of the species. Rationality, and along with it free choice,
belong to every human being and so to every woman as a human person. But
if the soul is the form of the body, and the form of humanity is individuated
by being united with this body or that one, Stein reasoned that the woman’s
soul will have a spiritual quality distinct from the man’s soul. She did
not argue that biology is destiny, but that the physical differences between
men and women profoundly mark their personalities. The woman’s body stamps
her soul with particular qualities that are common to all women but different
from distinctively masculine traits. Stein saw these differences as complementary
and not hierarchical in value, and so they should be recognized and celebrated
rather than minimized and deplored. There are two ways of being human,
as man or as woman.
Stein supported her view both by philosophical appeal to the intimacy of the body/soul relationship and to psychological theories that focus on personality types, rather than on behavior alone. She considered the differences between males and females to be evident even to common sense, and so in need of little argument. Her thesis would be denied by many feminists today, but probably not by anyone who has children of both genders. The differences between girls and boys is evident and seems totally resistant to manipulation. Nature has a stubborn way of asserting herself in total disregard for our theories. |
| Deep Dispositions | ||
| Stein looked especially
to the creation narratives of Genesis to draw out what she took to be the
natural vocation of woman. Every woman, she claimed, is meant to be both
a companion (her spousal vocation) and a mother. Because of her close connection
with human birth and development, woman seeks and embraces whatever is
living, personal, and whole. “To cherish, guard, protect, nourish, and
advance growth is her natural, maternal yearning.” Woman naturally focuses
on what is human, and tends to give relationships a higher importance than
work, success, reputation, etc. Here Stein’s thinking lines up with recent
neo-feminist authors like Carol Gilligan who claim that women approach
moral questions with more attention to the people affected by their actions
and decisions than to abstract and impersonal considerations of duty, rights,
and justice.
Woman is naturally more attuned to the individual, and hence to
a concrete, particular person with all of his or her own needs and potential.
Further, this maternal concern aims at the total development of the other
person as a unity of body, soul, and spirit. No one aspect of the personality
is to be sacrificed to any other. In particular, there is to be no divorcing
of mind and
The maternal aspect of woman’s vocation involves helping other persons develop to their fullest potential, and for those who are married, this will include their husbands as well as their children. Motherhood is a universal calling for women, and so not simply a task to be exercised with one’s biological children. Woman’s concern for the good of persons must extend to all those whose lives touch hers in some way. |
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