Woman, mother and educator of the human person

ROME, JAN. 21, 2003 ZENIT International News Agency.- A new institute in Rome is designed to focus on the true identity of women and their specific capacity to humanize culture and society.

The Institute of Higher Studies on Women (ISSD) was inaugurated Jan. 16; it is affiliated with the Legion of Christ´s Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum (http://www.ateneo.org).

Its objective is to promote a new concept of feminism that defends the rights of woman without destroying her particular values, and that exalts the richness that femininity contributes to education in the civilization of love, its organizers explained.

Cristina Zucconi Galli Fonseca, president of the institute, said in her inaugural address: "Unfortunately, the sexual revolution and, even more so, the materialistic and utilitarian philosophies of feminism of the ´60s to ´80s spread the belief that a woman´s personal fulfillment depended on her abandoning those very elements that distinguish her from man, primarily maternity."

According to Zucconi, these ideas "caused disorientation and unease in the way of addressing personal, family and professional life, as have forms of discrimination and exploitation that woman has suffered and continues to suffer in history."

"For this reason," she added, "the ISSD tries to study further and to promote what is specifically feminine, as mother and first teacher of the human being, as the one who gives life and can make a specific contribution to culture, education, society and the family."