Carmen M. Mangion 
Catholic nuns and sisters in a secular age 
Britain, 1945–90

This
is the first in-depth study of post-war female religious life. It draws on archival materials and a remarkable set of eighty interviews to place Catholic sisters and nuns at the heart of the turbulent 1960s, integrating their story of social change into a larger British and international one. Shedding new light on how religious bodies engaged in modernisation, it addresses themes such as the Modern Girl and youth culture, ‘1968’, generational discourse, post-war modernity, the voluntary sector and the women’s movement. Women religious were at the forefront of the Roman Catholic Church’s movement of adaptation and renewal towards the world. This volume tells their stories in their own words.

Table of Content

1 Introduction
2 Before the Council: post-war modernity and religious vocations
3 The modern girl and religious life
4 Governance, authority and ‘1968’
5 Relationships, generation discourse and the ‘turn to self’
6 The world in the cloister and the nun in the world
7 Local and global: changing ministries
8 Becoming a woman
9 Conclusion
Index

About the author

Carmen M. Mangion is a Lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London