New Feminism, Then and Now
Dive into a thought-provoking discussion on the past, present, and future of Christian feminism. In a profound exploration of faith and identity, legal scholar Helen Alvaré challenges the premises of "New Feminism 1.0" and calls for a "2.0" version—one radically recentered on bringing Christ to the world.
Experience the Event
Presented by McGrath Institute for Church Life
Dive into a thought-provoking discussion on the past, present, and future of Christian feminism. In a profound exploration of faith and identity, legal scholar Helen Alvaré challenges the premises of “New Feminism 1.0” and calls for a “2.0” version—recentered on each woman discerning her unique role in bringing Christ to the world. Alvaré’s fellow legal scholar and mentee Erika Bachiochi is the respondent to the keynote. This is a crucial conversation for anyone interested in the intersection of faith, feminism, and modern discipleship.
Thirty years ago, in both Evangelium Vitae and his Letter to Women, Pope John Paul II issued a clear call for the genius of women to be “more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole, as well as in the life of the Church” (Letter to Women 10). Throughout his papacy, in fact, he emphasized women’s “prophetic character,” calling on them to be “witnesses” and “sentinels” — guardians of the sacred gift of life and the order of love (Mulieris Dignitatem 29; Homily at Lourdes 2004).
Meet the Speaker: Helen Alvaré
Helen Alvaré, J.D. is Professor of Law and the Robert A. Levy Chair in Liberty & Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where she teaches and writes scholarship concerning Family Law and Law and Religion. She is also a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, and a consultant to various Holy See initiatives concerning women, including at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the Organization of American States. Her work appears regularly in law reviews and in public media. Among other books, she has authored Religious Freedom After the Sexual Revolution: a Catholic Guide, and Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves.
Meet the Speaker: Erika Bachiochi
Erika Bachiochi is a legal scholar working at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching and the author of the acclaimed 2021 book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision. A Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, she is also the editor-in-chief of Fairer Disputations, the online journal of sex-realist feminism, and a 2024–25 Fellow at the Nesti Center for Faith and Culture at the University of St. Thomas (Houston) where she is teaching in the new Catholic Women and Gender Studies Program. Erika is the happily married mother of seven children, ages 23-6.