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Contributions to the History of Feminism[edit]

Lifelong devotion to the oppressed[edit]

The beginning of Day's career was inherently radical and rooted personalism and socialism[1]; ideologies fundamental to intersectional feminism. Though Day did not explicitly identify as a feminist, this was not unusual for historical contributors to feminist work and philosophy. Much like her gravitation towards Catholicism, Day grew into her feminism; she is a "Born Again Feminist", like Dolores Huerta[2]. Day's lifetime of work, especially with the Catholic Worker Movement, aligns with core feminist principles of pushing against the kyriarchy to fight for rights of the oppressed. Her lifetime solidarity with and advocacy for the disadvantaged and marginalized is fundamentally feminist in its nature; providing aid to impoverished communities, supporting and providing a platform for activists and pacifists in her periodical, The Catholic Worker[3], and working to reform injustices within Catholicism[4]. Day's ethos did not change when she was drawn to Catholicism, rather, her devotion to egalitarian Catholic values only propelled her radical feminism, blending her past with her newfound beliefs and values[1]

Day forged a place for feminist theology in a religious world where women's experiences were largely not accounted for, or at worst, disregarded as anti-Church by male elites. [5] Day took gendered, raced, classed experiences into account in her writing and work, providing a framework for a construction of religious theory and ethics which was finally both passable and accurate in reflecting the congregation. It is through these acts that Day aligns herself and the Catholic Worker Movement with the ideology and practice of feminism.[6] Day lived through several significant events in the history of feminism: women's suffrage, labour rights, and movements in the 50s, 60s, and 70s which crusaded for equality, justice, and egalitarianism; all pillars of feminism.

Life Inspired Works[edit]

Day wrote constantly throughout her life, journalling and writing bits for herself. [6] She published several autobiographical works: The Eleventh Virgin, From Union Square to Rome, The Long Loneliness, and Loaves and Fishes. The four volumes together form a lifelong portrayal of Day's life. Writing autobiographies, especially about women, can be framed as a feminist act, as it provides direct access to information about prominent figures outside of the academic realm, and allows for greater representation of women in history. [7][8][9][10]

The Eleventh Virgin, a coming of age story published in 1924, is autobiographical in its essence. Though day does not directly refer to herself, the protagonist, June, represents Day. June experiences mirror Day's youth.[11] The Eleventh Virgin is Day's first instalment in a her series of autobiographical works, but the only that she is reported regretting later in life.[6] The raw portrayal of Day's bohemian youth before her conversion to Catholicism did not align with her any longer. The representation of Day's early experiences and growth through adolescence, especially at the time of publication, was uncommon. The Eleventh Virgin is a feminist text in its narrative and character's experiences, and the access it provided.[6]

Rejection of gender roles[edit]

Day was known for her knack of leveraging and undermining gender norms to fight patriarchal and kyriarchal systems in the workplace, politics, social structures, and the Catholic Church.[3] From a young age, growing up in a family of journalists, Day was made very aware of her perceived limitations as a woman in the world of journalism.[3] Her father played a part in this - speaking to colleagues behind Day's back in an effort to prevent them from hiring her.[12] She eventually got her foot in the door as an "office girl". [13], a position that aligned with both her family and the Church's stance on appropriate work for women outside of the home.[14] Day was instructed to "write like a woman", in a simple, declarative manner, but eventually grew her writing, centring on women's and social issues, from both a feminist and personalist perspective. [15] She outright rejected what was currently being published about perceived women's issues.[16]

As girls do not wear trousers, nor shirts, it is a waste of time and of space to tell them how they can save and still look neat by pressing the trousers under the mattress and sleeping on them, and of turning in the cuffs of their shirt. And, anyway, this is not a column, or part column, to tell girls how to give condescendingly helpful hints on how to save and be content in the hall bedroom. It is merely an experience.

Day grew as a writer and a journalist, stopping at nothing to advance her career and focus on the type of journalism she found important, regardless of her gender.[12]

I was bent on following the journalist’s side of the work. I wanted the privileges of the woman and the work of the man, without following the work of the woman. I wanted to go on picket lines, to go to jail, to write, to influence others and so make my mark on the world. How much ambition and how much self-seeking there was in all this!

Radical Catholicism[edit]

Though Day spent most of her life involved with activism, her radical Catholic social activism is what she is most revered for posthumously.[4] The Catholic Church, in spite of biblical teachings of egalitarianism and the equality of men and women, viewed the sexes as having different natural attributes. Women's attributes lending themselves to lives of service to the Church, men, and their families. [17] During Vatican II Council, the modernization of the Catholic church, Day, along with the Catholic Worker Movement and PAX, travelled to Rome. The agenda was to persuade Pope John XXIII and the council to do away with the just war doctrine in support of pacifism and conscientious objection in the name of Christian values, and explicitly denouncing nuclear weapons.[1]

With the Catholic Worker Movement, Day first focused on labour rights and aiding the disadvantaged, eventually calling for a non-violent revolution against the industrial economy, militarism, and fascism.[1] It was a deep belief of Day's that non-violence, pacifism, and anarchism aligned with Christianity would result in a radical shift to a new order.[18] Day's fight against the system was noticed by the American government. President Hoover felt particularly threatened, having pushed for Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty to persecute the Catholic Worker Movement several times for sedition and incitement, in spite of the Movement's pacifist stance. The Catholic Worker Movement was monitored by the FBI from 1940-1970; Day was jailed four times in this period.[18]

Day's involvement with the Catholic Worker and commitment to liberation theology fundamentally aligns with the values of feminism: fighting for social and political equality for all people, regardless of race, gender, or class. Her push against the Catholic Church and the military state served to promote egalitarianism and alleviate the oppressed.[19] It is Day's commitment to liberation theology and radical Catholicism contributes to her framing as a feminist, and serves to demonstrate the nuance and overlap of both religious and feminist ideologies.[20]

Social Justice[edit]

Day's overarching concern throughout her lifetime was the expression and effects of the elite, of power, over the people. This concern is shared with both liberation theology and feminist ideology. Day called for a shift to anarchism, communism, and pacifism in the name of Christianity and Christian teachings. Her weapon of choice against oppressive systems was her writing, her voice.[6]

Day wrote about vital happenings, matters of life and death, Japanese Chinese war, Ethiopian war, Spanish Civil War, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam war, labour strikes, on street cars, in garment factories, sugar refineries, and smelting plants, and policies of conscription.

Day's effort in her writing was to highlight social injustices, and serve as a voice for those who could not or did not know how to advocate for themselves, so as to spark movement to remedy and protect from further oppression.[3] Her advocacy and charity was prominent during tough times in American history, especially at the beginning of the Catholic Worker movement during the Great Depression.[21]


Later, her pacifist stance against World War II


social and economic issues, (auto)biographies as an act of feminism

political path interviewing prominent people in politics and activism

“her purposes in writing were many: to make known the experiences of the inarticulate, to spotlight the cracks in the social system, and to disclose human suffering so that action might be taken to prevent and alleviate it; to discuss and clarify ideas about how to improve the social order and to argue on behalf of the values of anarchism, voluntary property and pacifism in contrast to prevailing social and cultural preferences for institutionalized expressions of power, material, and militarism."[6] June E. O'Connor, Moral Vision of Dorothy Day

advocacy and aid was prominent in tough times in American history

Catholic worker -> pacifist stance throughout the world wars, which the Church supported

She inspired Catholic non-violent protests of the Vietnam war





Bibliography and Notes

[3] Dick, Bailey G… (2018) “Is It Not Possible to Be a Radical and a Christian?” Dorothy Day Navigates the Patriarchal Worlds of Journalism and Catholicism.


[22] Krupa, S. J. (2001). Celebrating Dorothy Day. America, 185(5), 7.


[21]Roberts, Nancy L. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. SUNY Press, Albany, 1984,


[23] Nepstad, Sharon Erickson (2019-08-27), "Equality for Women and Catholic Feminism", Catholic Social Activism, NYU Press, pp. 74–94, ISBN 978-1-4798-8548-0, retrieved 2020-11-01


[19] Johnson, K. C. P. D. (2009). Radical social activism, lay Catholic women and American feminism, 1920-1960.


[24] Britt-Smith, Laurie A. (2019-05-23), "Not So Easily Dismissed:", Remembering Women Differently, University of South Carolina Press, pp. 206–221, ISBN 978-1-61117-980-4, retrieved 2020-11-01


[20] Scott, D. (1992). More than a feminist. Commonweal, 119(5), 34.


[6] O'Connor, June E. (1991). The Moral Vision of Dorothy Day: A Feminist Perspective. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0824510800.

[25] Parker, J. (2017, March 1). A Saint for Difficult people: From Bohemian to Radical to Catholic activist, Dorothy Day Devoted Her Life to the Poor, However Unlovable. The Atlantic, 319(2), 32.


[26] Boorstein, Michelle (January 26, 2020). "Dorothy Day was a radical. Now many want the Vatican to make her a saint". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 1, 2020.


[18] Parrish, Marilyn Mckinley (2002). Creating a Place for Learning: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement.




  1. ^ a b c d Nepstad, Sharon Erickson,. Catholic social activism : progressive movements in the United States. New York. ISBN 978-1-4798-3086-2. OCLC 1105557644.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ PBS NewsHour | Dolores Huerta Calls Herself 'a Born-Again Feminist' | Season 2012, retrieved 2020-11-22
  3. ^ a b c d e Dick, Bailey (2019-07-22). ""Is It Not Possible to Be a Radical and a Christian?": Dorothy Day's Evolving Relationship with the Patriarchal Norms of Journalism and Catholicism". Journalism History. 45 (4): 311–329. doi:10.1080/00947679.2019.1631083. ISSN 0094-7679.
  4. ^ a b Krupa, Stephen J. "Celebrating Dorothy Day". America. 185: 7.
  5. ^ Ruether, Rosemary Radford. (1983). Sexism and God-talk : toward a feminist theology. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-1104-5. OCLC 9082665.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g O'Connor, June E. (1991). The Moral Vision of Dorothy Day: A Feminist Perspective. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0824510800.
  7. ^ Jelenik, Estelle. Women's Autobiography: Essays in Criticism.
  8. ^ Jelenik, Estelle. The Tradition of Women's Autobiography: From Antiquity to Present.
  9. ^ Smith, Sidonie. A Poetics of Women's Autobiography.
  10. ^ Mason, Mary G. (2019-12-31), "1. Positioning the Female Autobiographical Subject The Other Voice: Autobiographies of Women Writers", Life/Lines, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 19–44, ISBN 978-1-5017-4556-0, retrieved 2020-12-01
  11. ^ Day, Dorothy, 1897-1980. (1924). The eleventh virgin. Cairns Collection of American Women Writers. New York: A. & Co. Boni. ISBN 0-9837605-1-9. OCLC 4291463.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ a b Day, Dorothy, 1897-1980. ([1981], ©1952). The long loneliness : the autobiography of Dorothy Day. San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-061751-9. OCLC 7554814. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Miller, William (December 13, 1980). "Dorothy Day,1897-1980 'All Was Grace'". America: 382.
  14. ^ Leo XIII (May 15, 1891). Rerum Novarum.
  15. ^ Hennessy, Kate, 1960-. Dorothy Day : the world will be saved by beauty : an intimate portrait of my grandmother (First Scribner hardcover edition ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-5011-3396-1. OCLC 944380234. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ Day, Dorothy (December 18, 1916). "'Man Cannot Live By Bread Alone', and Neither Can a Normal Woman". The New York Call.
  17. ^ Pope Pius XII. Papal Teaching. p. 109.
  18. ^ a b c Parrish, Marilyn Mckinley (2002). Creating a Place for Learning: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement.
  19. ^ a b Johnson, K. C. P. D. (2009). Radical social activism, lay Catholic women and American feminism, 1920-1960.
  20. ^ a b Scott, D. (1992). More than a feminist. Commonweal, 119(5), 34.
  21. ^ a b Roberts, Nancy L., 1954- (1984). Dorothy Day and the Catholic worker. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-585-06061-4. OCLC 42855411.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ Krupa, S. J. "Celebrating Dorothy Day". America. 185.
  23. ^ Nepstad, Sharon Erickson (2019-08-27), "Equality for Women and Catholic Feminism", Catholic Social Activism, NYU Press, pp. 74–94, ISBN 978-1-4798-8548-0, retrieved 2020-11-01
  24. ^ Britt-Smith, Laurie A. (2019-05-23), "Not So Easily Dismissed:", Remembering Women Differently, University of South Carolina Press, pp. 206–221, ISBN 978-1-61117-980-4, retrieved 2020-11-01
  25. ^ Parker, J. (2017, March 1). A Saint for Difficult people: From Bohemian to Radical to Catholic activist, Dorothy Day Devoted Her Life to the Poor, However Unlovable. The Atlantic, 319(2), 32.
  26. ^ Boorstein, Michelle (January 26, 2020). "Dorothy Day was a radical. Now many want the Vatican to make her a saint". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 1, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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