Books & Edited Volumes by Kathleen McPhillips
This paper considers the relationship between women, religion and the Australian state via an exa... more This paper considers the relationship between women, religion and the Australian state via an examination of federal anti-‐discrimination law. Using two feminist methodologies, it will be argued that the neo-‐liberal state allows discriminatory practices in employment and service provisions by religious organizations on the basis of protecting religious freedom. However, evidence suggests that women are often subject to discriminatory practices by both religious organizations and the state. The state is in the contradictory position of needing to both protect the citizenship from religious influences while simultaneously providing a guarantee of religious freedom. Women, I will argue, are caught in a trap here; they are often denied full inclusion in religious traditions and institutions, and the state reinforces this marginalization by the very legislation to protect religious freedom. Yet the state also promotes the inclusion of women in public life through human rights and anti-‐discrimination legislation. This results in a quandary and begs the question: whose freedom is being protected? I am calling this form of secularism, sexularism to describe the specific intersection between religious groups and gender rights in neo-‐liberal states.
Special edition of Child Abuse & Neglect on the Australian Royal Commission
Gen X women grew up in the Catholic Church in the climate of cultural and theological change brou... more Gen X women grew up in the Catholic Church in the climate of cultural and theological change brought about by the Second Vatican Council. Given the Catholic Church's attempt to move into the modern world, it might be expected that such changes would result in an increase of participation by women in the Church. In fact, the opposite has happened and the participation of Gen X Catholic women in Church life is at substantially low levels. This article reviews the current research in this area, and seeks to contextualise the experiences of Gen X women in the broader social changes that have characterised late modernity. It contends that current methods of examining the religious identity of Gen X Catholic women fail to understand the complexity of reasons for non-participation. Shifting the research focus beyond a simple model of church participation will shed important light on the sociology of Catholicism and religious identity in Australia.
Feminism is a relatively recent social movement of radical reform, emerging from the mass politic... more Feminism is a relatively recent social movement of radical reform, emerging from the mass political movements of democratisation, secularisation and liberalism that swept across the Western world from the seventeenth century onwards. The first wave of organised feminist political action was articulated in the abolitionist, temperance and suffrage movements in America and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century and culminated in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 in New York State where the women's rights movement was born. Religion was a crucial influence in the work of first wave feminists enjoying close ties to the liberal movements of Protestantism , particularly the Quaker movement. However, as modernity progressed into the twentieth century and secularism became incorporated into state-craft, the influence of religion in the public sphere waned and humanist ethics came to the fore in political life. So, although Christianity had been a primary part of first wave feminism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from the 1960s second wave feminism embraced secularism and situated religion as an inherently patriarchal institution, incapable of social change, and has yet to acknowledge the pivotal part that women's religious leadership played in establishing the grounds for contemporary feminist politics. Recently, a third phase of religious feminism, defined as post-secular feminism, shifts the ground yet again to open up new possibilities of engagement between religious and non-religious feminisms. Following on from the first two waves of religious feminism, this third phase holds potential for counter hegemonic action in transforming gender conservative religious institutions, theologies and social practices towards more inclusive, potentially transformative, religious cultures. It also provides space for a new articulation of religious and secular feminist politics. Abstract Feminism is a relatively recent social movement of radical reform, emerging from the mass political movements of democratisation, secularisation and liberalism that swept across the Western world from the seventeenth century onwards. The first wave of organised feminist political action was articulated in the abolitionist, temperance and suffrage movements in America and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century and culminated in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 in New York State where the women's rights movement was born. Religion was a crucial influence in the work of first wave feminists enjoying close ties to the liberal movements of Protestantism , particularly the Quaker movement. However, as modernity progressed into the twentieth century and secularism became incorporated into state-craft, the influence of religion in the public sphere waned and humanist ethics came to the fore in political life. So, although Christianity had been a primary part of first wave feminism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from the 1960s second wave feminism embraced secularism and situated religion as an inherently patriarchal institution, incapable of social change, and has yet to acknowledge the pivotal part that women's religious leadership played in establishing the grounds for contemporary feminist politics. Recently, a third phase of religious feminism, defined as post-secular feminism, shifts the ground yet again to open up new possibilities of engagement between religious and non-religious feminisms. Following on from the first two waves of religious feminism, this third phase holds potential for counter hegemonic action in transforming gender conservative religious institutions, theologies and social practices towards more inclusive, potentially transformative, religious cultures. It also provides space for a new articulation of religious and secular feminist politics.
This chapter explores institutional contributions to cultures of sexual violence with particular ... more This chapter explores institutional contributions to cultures of sexual violence with particular attention on the work of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which ran from 2013-2017, and specifically the two public hearings involving the Marist Brothers, a male teaching order of Catholic celibate men.
The NSW Special Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese, an area north ... more The NSW Special Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese, an area north of Sydney, Australia, held proceedings during 2013. The Special Inquiry investigated allegations made by police whistleblower Peter Fox that the Newcastle police and the Catholic Church colluded to keep criminal sexual activity against children by two Catholic priests from being properly investigated. This article reports on sections of the court hearings dealing with the Catholic Church, and relates these to sociological theories of gender, religion and power. In particular, the article will position gender analysis, via the social construction of clerical masculinity , as a central hermeneutic for understanding the culture of sexual violence which has plagued the Catholic Church in this region, and more broadly, for decades. This analysis uncovers a culture of elitist male cleri-calism, practices of institutional secrecy, the poor psychosexual development of priests and an exclusivist patriarchal construction of the sacred as key elements in Church culture. The article makes a contribution to two areas of inquiry that are under-researched in the child sexual abuse literature: the role of gender and the culture of priesthood.
My response focuses on the two main issues raised by the three discussants: first, the complex fo... more My response focuses on the two main issues raised by the three discussants: first, the complex forms of relationality that characterize both individual and group trauma and responses to trauma, and second, the function of vicarious trauma that is produced for witnesses and onlookers and the ways in which this enables a third space to develop with healing properties. I explore these two issues by returning to the work of the Royal Commission with an account of my experience of attending Case Study 43 in September 2016.
Beginning in 2013, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual A... more Beginning in 2013, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (referred to as the Royal Commission) bought to public consciousness a history of child sexual exploitation that contradicts dearly held values of the preciousness and innocence of childhood and the trust of public organizations. The Royal Commission has publically validated the trauma that victims have experienced across institutions. It has also identified and raised the issue of a symptomatology of cultural trauma at work in community and public life. Using the work of contemporary trauma theorists and applying it to one hearing held in Victoria in May 2015, this paper suggests that collective trauma can shape cultural identity and influence the quality of communal life.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal comm... more The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal commission in Australia's history and one of the largest public inquiries into institutional child abuse internationally. With an investment from the Australian government of half a billion dollars, it examined how institutions with a responsibility for children, both historically and in the present, have responded to allegations of child sexual abuse. Announced in the wake of previous Australian and international inquiries, public scandals and lobbying by survivor groups, its establishment reflected increasing recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by childhood sexual abuse and a strong political commitment to improving child safety and wellbeing in Australia. This article outlines the background, key features and innovations of this landmark public inquiry, focusing in particular on its extensive research program. It considers its international significance and also serves as an introduction to this special edition on the Australian Royal Commission, exploring its implications for better understanding institutional child sexual abuse and its impacts, and for making institutions safer places for children in the future.
Special Issue of the Journal of Australian Studies
Articles & Chapters by Kathleen McPhillips
Child Abuse & Neglect, 2017
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal comm... more The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal commission in Australia’s history and one of the largest public inquiries into institutional child abuse internationally. With an investment from the Australian government of half a billion dollars, it examined how institutions with a responsibility for children, both historically and in the present, have responded to allegations of child sexual abuse. Announced in the wake of previous Australian and international inquiries, public scandals and lobbying by survivor groups, its establishment reflected increasing recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by childhood sexual abuse and a strong political commitment to improving child safety and wellbeing in Australia. This article outlines the background, key features and innovations of this landmark public inquiry, focusing in particular on its extensive research program. It considers its international significance and also serves as an introduction to this special edition on the Australian Royal Commission, exploring its implications for better understanding institutional child sexual abuse and its impacts, and for making institutions safer places for children in the future.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal comm... more The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal commission in Australia's history and one of the largest public inquiries into institutional child abuse internationally. With an investment from the Australian government of half a billion dollars, it examined how institutions with a responsibility for children, both historically and in the present, have responded to allegations of child sexual abuse. Announced in the wake of previous Australian and international inquiries, public scandals and lobbying by survivor groups, its establishment reflected increasing recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by childhood sexual abuse and a strong political commitment to improving child safety and wellbeing in Australia. This article outlines the background, key features and innovations of this landmark public inquiry, focusing in particular on its extensive research program. It considers its international significance and also serves as an introduction to this special edition on the Australian Royal Commission, exploring its implications for better understanding institutional child sexual abuse and its impacts, and for making institutions safer places for children in the future.
Papers by Kathleen McPhillips
Religion and Gender, Apr 14, 2022
Sociological and historical research into sexual violence against children has reported consisten... more Sociological and historical research into sexual violence against children has reported consistently that it is girls who have most often been the subject of sexual, psychological and physical violence in both familial and institutional settings in modernity. However, more recently, public inquiries have provided evidence that during the 20th century, boys were much more likely to be abused in particular kinds of religious settings. This has been substantiated in findings from inquiries in Australia, Ireland, the UK and the USA. This reverses the trend of child sexual abuse (CSA) demonstrated in family and community environments, where girls are more likely to be abused, although perpetrators are much more likely to be men across all settings (Dowling, Boxall, et al. 2021). The question of gender in relation to the experience and management of CSA therefore requires further examination. In this article we investigate whether gender is a specific dimension of CSA in religious institutions, and specifically the Roman Catholic Church, by two methods. We begin by firstly examining the literature that addresses gender representation, religion and CSA in relation to three central evidence-based indicators: prevalence, disclosure and trauma impacts. Secondly, we link this discussion to a case study of the Catholic Church in Australia, where we identify specific patterns of gendered child violence and we ask the question: are such gendered forms of violence related to Catholic socialisation processes and if so by which specific mechanisms does Catholic culture produce the conditions that facilitate the sexual abuse of children? This article will explore these questions by looking at the ways CSA in Catholic institutions are gendered and how this produced particular forms of knowledge and truth. We argue that gender is a central organising principle in Catholic bureaucracy, culture and theology. The analysis identifies five central factors underpinning the reproduction of a discourse of power and knowledge normalizing gendered patterns of CSA and addresses a gap in current research by addressing gender representation as the central factor in the prevalence, disclosure and trauma of religiously based CSA.
Routledge eBooks, Nov 25, 2022
Journal for the Academic Study of Religion
Members of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR) are mourning our friend, m... more Members of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR) are mourning our friend, mentor and colleague, Gary Bouma, who died unexpectedly on 19 August 2021. Gary's massive academic legacy includes over 30 books and 360 articles-with many still forthcoming. His most recent book, authored with
Routledge eBooks, Dec 14, 2021
Routledge eBooks, Nov 25, 2022
Religions
As the sexual abuse crisis continues to plague the Catholic Church across the world, the focus on... more As the sexual abuse crisis continues to plague the Catholic Church across the world, the focus on men as both perpetrators of sexual violence, and victims of child sexual abuse has been at the forefront of media and academic analysis. However, evidence from public inquiries, criminal investigations, academic research and survivor testaments identifies women religious as both perpetrators of sexual and physical violence against children and victims of clerical sexual violence. This indicates that women religious, colloquially known as nuns, belong to a very unsettled landscape in religious gender politics in that they have been both victims of male clerical abuse and perpetrators of child abuse. This article considers these two contested realities by examining and analysing the evidence from research studies and public inquiries. We found that nuns were not only perpetrators of physical and sexual violence against children, but they were also engaged in herding children into the path...
Journal for the academic study of religion, 2018
Gen X women grew up in the Catholic Church in the climate of cultural and theological change brou... more Gen X women grew up in the Catholic Church in the climate of cultural and theological change brought about by the Second Vatican Council. Given the Catholic Church's attempt to move into the modern world, it might be expected that such changes would result in an increase of participation by women in the Church. In fact, the opposite has happened and the participation of Gen X Catholic women in Church life is at substantially low levels. This article reviews the current research in this area, and seeks to contextualise the experiences of Gen X women in the broader social changes that have characterised late modernity. It contends that current methods of examining the religious identity of Gen X Catholic women fail to understand the complexity of reasons for non-participation. Shifting the research focus beyond a simple model of church participation will shed important light on the sociology of Catholicism and religious identity in Australia.
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Books & Edited Volumes by Kathleen McPhillips
Articles & Chapters by Kathleen McPhillips
Papers by Kathleen McPhillips