Women form 57% of the membership of the Opus Dei prelature.[1] The role of women in Opus Dei has sometimes been a source of criticism for the organization.[2]
Some of these gender-related criticisms have been directed specifically towards Opus Dei. Unmarried male and female numeraries are segregated, with only limited contact between genders - male and female numeraries live in separate centers and attend separate classes and retreats. Some have said that Opus Dei's U.S. Headquarters even has separate entrances for men and women, but this is not so: there are separate entrances to the men's house and to the women's house, but men and women can enter either house through the appropriate entrance.[3]
In Opus Dei, there is a sub-group of female "assistant numeraries" who perform cooking, cleaning, sewing, and other household duties in centers of Opus Dei as their professional work and as a way to serve the others. Members emphasize that the numerary assistants clean both men's and women's centers, but critics take issue with the fact that while women clean for men, men never clean for the women.
In recent years, Opus Dei has faced a number of accusations of exploitation of assistant numeraries, for example, recruiting them from poor families while young, even as minors, working them for 12 hours a day, with few days off, not paying them fairly, and not providing financial support to those who leave.
In 2021, a group of 43 former assistant numeraries from Argentina and other countries in South America made a joint complaint to Opus Dei and the Vatican relating to similar matters. [4]
In early 2024, three Irish former assistant numeraries made similar accusations in the media, with 13 other assistant numeraries from USA, Europe and Africa also interviewed by the Financial Times. [5] [6] [7]
Critics also object to some of Escriva's teachings on women. He once wrote, "Wives, you should ask yourself whether you are not forgetting a little about your appearance. Your duty is, and will always be, to take as good care of your appearance as you did before you were married - and it is a duty of justice." Escriva similarly stated that "Women needn’t be scholars - it’s enough for them to be prudent."[8]
Opus Dei and its supporters reject any suggestion their policies are inappropriate. While they admit women are sometimes treated differently than men within Opus Dei, supporters emphasize that men and women are nonetheless regarded as equals. A spokesman has said that Opus Dei is committed to the "equal dignity of men and women." In the opinion of one member, women should not enter the workforce as "one more" but as a "different one," given that "the only ontological difference among human beings is determined by the sexes," and that care for the family and the home are "eminently feminine."[9] Supporters say that Opus Dei, with its emphasis on work, is a strong advocate of women becoming professionals - according to one scholar, "Opus Dei has an enviable record of educating the poor and supporting women, whether single or married, in any occupation they choose."[10]
Supporters also point out that women participate in the governance of Opus Dei - for example, the Central Advisory, which oversees the women's branch of Opus Dei, is made up entirely of women. Thus, John Allen reports that half of the leadership positions in Opus Dei are held by women, and they supervise men.[11]
Many of these criticisms are directed not just at Opus Dei, but at Catholicism as a whole.[12] As in the rest of the Catholic Church, women may not join the priesthood or participate in the very highest levels of church governance. The Catholic prohibitions against abortion and birth control have also drawn criticism. While a minority of Roman Catholics have advocated for changing these stances, Opus Dei is generally seen as supportive of them.
Many critics of such policies have therefore opposed Opus Dei, as in the case of one author who views Opus Dei "as one of the most reactionary organizations in the Roman Catholic Church today...for its devotion to promoting, as public policy, the Vatican's inflexibly traditionalist approach to women, and reproductive health."[13] Those who approve of the Vatican's policies, meanwhile, applaud Opus Dei's stance on those issues.[14]
Women of Opus Dei: In Their Own Words by MT Oates, Linda Ruf and Jane Driver, MD