Since his election, Vatican News points out, “Pope Francis has increased the presence, visibility, and influence of women in the Vatican” significantly.
Francis appointed Sister Helen Alford, O.P., as president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, on April 1. The 58-year-old British sister was had been the dean of the faculty of social sciences at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas-Angelicum in Rome. At the head of Villa Pia, she succeeds the Italian economist Stefano Zamagni.
Women currently number at 1,165 employees, compared to 846 at the start of Francis’ pontificate in 2013, or 19.2% compared to 23.4% today. These figures combine the Holy See and the Vatican City State.
The increase in the number of women employed is even more pronounced if the Holy See, that is, the Roman Curia, is considered exclusively. The percentage of women there has increased from 19.3 to 26.1% since 2013. In other words, one in four employees of the Holy See is now a woman, i.e., 812 women out of 3,114 employees.
Secretaries and under-secretaries are the second and third levels of management respectively in most Curia bodies. They are part of the management team with the prefect, and are appointed by the pope. Currently, five women hold the post of under-secretary, and Sister Alessandra Smerilli that of secretary in the Dicastery for the service of integral human development, the highest office ever entrusted to a woman in the Vatican since 2021.
In 2021, the pope appointed Bible scholar Nuria Calduch-Benages, a Spanish nun, secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. In 2022, the theologian Emilce Cuda was appointed secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Dicastery for Bishops.
Historically, the appointment of experienced women to high positions in the Curia began with Paul VI. Under his pontificate, Australian Rosemarie Goldie served in the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 1967 to 1976, as one of two vice-secretaries. In 2004, John Paul II appointed a woman under-secretary: Sister Enrica Rosanna, to the Congregation for Consecrated Life.
Within the Vatican City State, where the proportion of women has remained stable (19%), Francis has appointed two women in leadership positions: Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums since 2016, and Sister Raffaella Petrini , Secretary General of the Governorate since 2022.
On March 8, 2023, International Women’s Day, Vatican Radio and Vatican News broadcast statistics on the presence of women in the Vatican, as of the tenth anniversary of Francis’s pontificate. And on March 10, the collective work Più leadership femminile per un mondo migliore [More female leadership for a better world], Vita e Pensiero, was presented in Rome, for which the Pope signed the preface.