The feminist challenge to the Catholic faith is based upon a deep misunderstanding.
Feminists accuse Catholicism of being thoroughly patriarchal.
They claim that women have been oppressed since the Church's inception by a male power structure. In the Catholic Church, they charge, men and men alone are the rulers in a hierarchically- based system of pope, bishops, priests, and deacons. This feminist ecclesiological perspective employs three false premises. First, it is commonly believed, even among those who are not feminist, that power and authority is something intrinsically tied solely to formal public office. Second, in order for women to have religious power and authority they somehow must be identified with divinity.