Gender Performativities: Discourses and Representations of a Group of Catholic Nuns

Abstract

This paper explores the gender performativities of Portuguese Catholic religious nuns. Based on a qualitative study, we intended to understand if gender performativities of a group of religious nuns are constrained by the official discourses and representations of the Catholic Church. We also intended to analyze these women’s perspectives about gender social relations and their positions towards femininity and masculinity conceptions traditionally propagated by the gender order (Connell, 2009) and, concretely, by the Catholic Church gender regime. For that purpose 7 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with nuns living in institutions located in Oporto Metropolitan area. Data was analyzed through a content analysis. It was concluded that nuns are, in fact, constrained by the discourses and representations of Catholic Church, performing gender through reproductions and reiteration of traditional conceptions of femininity and masculinity. Gender is materialized by them through daily actions, based on institutional and social prescriptions highly conservative.