Continuity and change in the perspectives of women religious in Ireland on themselves both as religious and as teachers in the years immediately prior to, and following, the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965)

Abstract

A general lack of scholarly works on various aspects of the history of the lives of female teaching religious has recently been highlighted by Hellinckx, Depaepe and Simon. This paper, which reports a preliminary study, is offered as one contribution to addressing the deficit identified. The hope is that it will provoke further scholarship in the field. It is based on an oral history project on the perspectives of female religious in Ireland on themselves over time for the period 1950–2008. Three main “frames” were identified in the participants’ testimony in this regard: they saw themselves as emulators of their own teachers; they placed great emphasis on having had to deal with various challenges of a personal and social nature; and they were acutely aware of having been prepared from their early years as full‐professed religious for being required to respond to leadership expectations of their superiors.