Why We Can’t Fix the System Without Talking About God, Politics, and Money
“I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft
“When God made man and woman, He didn’t make hierarchy — He made partnership.”
— Desmond Tutu
When we started the Creative Women’s Association, we didn’t set out to talk about God, or politics, or men. We set out to build creative economies, to change how systems value women’s work, and to restore common sense to how we think about community and contribution. But you can’t fix a structure without eventually tracing where it comes from. And somewhere between policy, pay gaps, and social programs, we realised there was a quiet architect behind it all — a story we were never supposed to question.
The version of “God” we were taught to obey in Catholic school.
The rules our mothers were taught about what a “good” woman does:
Be polite. Don’t talk about money. Don’t argue politics. Don’t question religion.
Let the men handle it.
And so we did. For decades. For generations.
And this is where it’s gotten us.
If the world were a dinner plate, men would be served 80% of the food while women would scrape by on the remaining 20%.
Women perform 76% of the world’s unpaid labour and hold less than 34% of its financial assets. They care for the children, the elderly, the sick, and the planet — but when it’s time to eat, they’re the ones left clearing the table.
That’s not divine order. That’s design.
The math doesn’t lie. If we were to calculate this “divine economy” as a household, it would show men receiving an energy surplus of +56 units, while women operate at a deficit of –56. For every unit of unpaid labour a woman gives, she receives less than a quarter in return. That’s not God’s arithmetic. That’s economic malnutrition.
So we started asking the question no one likes to ask: Is this really what God wants for women? Or is this what the system — a system built by men — told us to accept in His name?
Did you know the Vatican directly governs or influences over 300,000 institutions worldwide — schools, hospitals, universities, parishes, and charities? Inside this vast network, only about 5% of decision-making roles are held by women, and even those positions rarely carry real authority. That’s not faith; that’s feudalism dressed in vestments.
We send our children to over 95,000 Catholic primary schools and 43,800 secondary schools globally. We trust those institutions with their education, their imagination, and their moral compass. And yet, the governance of these systems — the ones shaping half the world’s children — is overwhelmingly male. Five percent female leadership. Ninety-five percent obedience.
If we’re serious about changing how the world provides for women — how it funds them, protects them, promotes them — we have to be willing to speak about the forces that have shaped those systems for centuries.
That means talking about God.
That means talking about politics.
That means talking about money.
Because the old rule — “a well-bred woman doesn’t talk about such things” — has been the most effective form of silencing in history.
The first equality laws were passed in 1969. That’s over half a century ago. Fifty-six years later, women still earn less, lead less, and eat less of the pie. We’re still told to be patient, to work twice as hard, to wait our turn. But if waiting were going to work, it would have by now.
At CWA, we’ve reached a simple conclusion: the system cannot be redesigned if we’re not allowed to name the architecture.
And like all good renovations, it begins by seeing what’s really holding up the walls.
The truth is uncomfortable because it’s obvious. The problem was never that women lacked talent or ambition or value. The problem is that the world’s reward systems were built by institutions that never intended to include us. And until those structures are rebalanced — spiritually, politically, financially — we’ll keep mistaking servitude for holiness and scarcity for humility.
We are done leaving the conversations that matter to men.
The God conversation. The money conversation. The power conversation.
Because avoiding them hasn’t kept us safe — it’s kept us small.
The next era of equality won’t come from the margins of polite conversation. It will come from the women who were told not to speak — and who now refuse to stay silent.
We’re not here to destroy faith. We’re here to reclaim it.
To rewrite the script so that “divine order” finally includes the divine feminine.
To make sure that when our daughters take their seat at the table, there’s more than just crumbs left for them.
We’ve tried waiting. We’ve tried obeying.
Now, we’re trying something radical: honesty.
And it begins with saying what’s obvious.
If 80% of the world’s food — literal and figurative — still goes to men, and 76% of the world’s work still falls on women, then God’s not the problem.
The system is.
And it’s time it was rewritten.
Read the Full Article:
Vatican summit praises women’s leadership, but stops short on women clergy
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