Men Could Never Do What We Do
St. Frances Cabrini and the Feminine Genius
What is a woman? That question was made famous by the Daily Wire's Matt Walsh in his provocative 2022 documentary of the same name. In the documentary, Matt Walsh travels worldwide, posing as someone genuinely interested in learning about gender ideology. When the gender ideologues give their circular definitions of the word woman, he asks common sense questions that ultimately tear the ideology apart. But at the end of the documentary, a plausible definition is offered. He is shown walking into his kitchen, greeting his wife, and asking her the simple question he has been searching for the entire documentary- What is a woman? His wife offers a simple, four-word answer: "An adult human female."
That's a beautiful, precise definition. It encapsulates the biological basis behind what women are. But is it accurate? In one sense, yes. Every single woman falls into the category of an adult human female, and no man could ever breach that category. So, for the purpose of the documentary, it is a perfect answer. For the purpose of making the gender ideologues look like fools, it is a perfect answer. Although it is perfect for those two purposes, it is not the perfect answer to the question. It ignores one-half of what people are. Humans are not just their bodies. We are body and soul.
If Matt Walsh answers the biological side of what a woman is, what is its counterpart? Where can we look to find the other half of the answer? I wasn't actively looking for the answer to these questions, but I found it last week when I saw Cabrini, the new movie by Angel Studios depicting a part of St. Frances Cabrini's life.
Some conservatives may watch Cabrini and think it's making a pro-immigration statement. Some liberals may watch it and think it's a pro-religion movie. And while both are reasonable takeaways, the actual statement in the film is far simpler than that. The movie is about what a woman is.
Two huge moments in the movie tell us what the movie is about. And both of them happen very late in the film. About three-fourths of the way through, Mother Cabrini is arrested. When she is released, she talks to who I assume is the mayor's secretary. Mother Cabrini somewhat forcefully asks to speak to the mayor, and the secretary yells at her, "Who do you think you are?" Mother Cabrini then lists off a few things about herself, but the first thing she says in response is, "I am a woman." Then, at the end of the movie, Cabrini finally gets her meeting with the mayor. After an argument and a thinly veiled political threat, the mayor agrees to her requests and says, "It's too bad you're a woman. You would have made an excellent man." Without skipping a beat, Cabrini calmly replies, "Oh no, Mr. Mayor. Men could never do what we do."
Men could never do what we do. What is it that she does? St. Frances Cabrini was a Catholic sister, an Italian immigrant to America, who came to start an orphanage for Italian children in New York City. She initially wanted to go to China, but the pope made her start in New York. After successfully starting and running the orphanage, she was asked to start a hospital. And she successfully started a hospital. But none of it was easy.
Every step of the way, Mother Cabrini was met with roadblocks. The pope initially denied her mission. She then argued with the pope until he agreed, but he made her start in New York rather than her desired China. Once she got to New York, the archbishop told her he was denying her mission. She argued with him until he changed his mind. After a few months in New York, the archbishop canceled her mission, and the pope refused to override the archbishop. She then went to the Italian Senate to ask for funding and was denied without a hearing. They later changed their minds after Cabrini crashed a senate meeting and spoke to the congregation at a time when women weren't allowed to speak on the Senate floor. She went into a room with some of the wealthiest men in New York City and asked for donations. She refused to take no for an answer when a wealthy Italian man in New York told her he wouldn't help with anything the church was involved in. This woman, Mother Cabrini, would not give up. I listed five times that she stood up to men more powerful and respected than her. And each time, she won.
Typically, women are more agreeable than men. Some proof of this is that in the Big Five Aspects Scale, which tests five aspects of a person's personality, women consistently score higher than men in agreeableness. So how can this depiction of Mother Cabrini, a woman who is not agreeable in any form, be the perfect depiction of a woman? Because although men and women have different personalities, personality is not what makes a man or a woman. The differences are far deeper than that. It is much more than a human's likes and dislikes, more than being prone to arguing or avoiding conflict. Instead, it is what drives Mother Cabrini that makes her the perfect example of what a woman is.
In Pope Saint John Paul II's 1995 Letter to Women, he speaks of what he calls the "genius of women." St. John Paul II notes in the letter that "more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see people with their hearts." That is the crucial difference between men and women. Women see people with their hearts. They see the worth in every human being they come across. They see, and they care, about the poor, the sick, the needy. Simply put, women see the humanity in every person.
This "genius of women," also called the feminine genius, is evidenced throughout societies worldwide. Any job you can think of where the primary goal is taking care of the poor, sick, or needy is dominated by women. Here in the United States, 86% of nurses are women. Over 80% of all elementary school teachers are women, with 96.7% of kindergarten teachers being women. Over 95% of speech pathologists are women. 80.5% of all social workers are women.
You might say, "Sure, in the United States, that's true. But that's because women are socialized that way from a young age. They grow up thinking that is their only option." That might be a good argument, but when you look at the most egalitarian societies in the world, women make up an even higher percentage or are on par with the United States in their share of that type of work. For example, in Norway, which is ranked as the most egalitarian society, 90% of nurses are women. The percentage of elementary school female teachers is on par with that of the United States, as is the percentage of social workers. So, our best evidence shows that these career differences aren't because of socialization. Rather, it is something much deeper than that. Something ingrained in men and women because of who we are, because of our natural differences.
To explore these differences, I go back to Pope Saint John Paul II, this time from his 1988 apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem. He argues that this predisposition to caring, this feminine genius, is rooted in both biology and psychology. More specifically, the biological truths about women give insight into the psychological truths about women.
Biologically, women are of the nature to have a child. Of course, not all women can, but all are of the nature to (the same way humans, by their nature, have two arms—exceptions don't change the nature of the being). Conception, pregnancy, and childbirth are all things that only a woman can experience. It is this truth that makes motherhood different from fatherhood. However, the difference between motherhood and fatherhood is not just biological; these biological differences lead to psychological truths.
Women, in pregnancy, have a unique role in the care of the child that the father does not yet have. The mother must take special precautions in caring for their unborn child. She must face the reality of pregnancy, recognize what is happening inside of her, and accept that unborn child as her own. The father does not ever have to face those realities. As JPII writes, "[m]otherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life…" This special communion with life "gives rise to an attitude towards human beings—not only toward her own child, but every human being…" That attitude is one of love, one of caring, one of seeing the human before the human can see themselves.
Women, by their nature, can become pregnant. Because of this, women, by their nature, have a love for people that men do not. Pregnancy further develops that love, but it is not necessary to have that love. Women are predisposed to give themselves, to gift themselves, to another human being in pregnancy in a way that men never can. So, women must be psychologically predisposed to take on that extra gift of themselves.
That psychological predisposition, without pregnancy, is made clear in the life of St. Frances Cabrini. She was never a biological mother, but she gave her life to others. She created a worldwide order of sisters who run orphanages and hospitals. But she wasn't driven by the goal of creating a worldwide order; she was driven by her love of others. She did all of this because she wanted every human to be loved. She did all of this because she wanted every human to be cared for. She did all of this because she wanted every human to feel like a human.
So I return to the question, what is a woman? A woman is someone who is predisposed to seeing the whole person, predisposed to caring, and predisposed to tender affection for the needy. A woman is someone who, by their very nature, is prepared to give birth to a child, to accept that child, and to gift themselves to that child. A woman is someone who is driven by their love and can spread that love out into the world in a way that a man never could.
And, yes, a woman is an adult human female.
