Survey of Catholic women has bias

Monday, October 17th, 2022

A highly regarded researcher says that most of the questions in an international survey of Catholic women have a bias, leading to a focus on ordination for women, women preachers and LGBTIQ inclusion.

University of Western Australia academic Dr Philippa Martyr said while the full report of the international survey contained rich material from the open-ended responses, subsequent reporting in the media highlighted responses to the “loaded” closed questions.

Dr Martyr is a contributor to a current study by the University of Notre Dame Australia surveying Australians who identify as Catholic about their beliefs and practices.

The report authored by Dr Tracy McEwan and Dr Kathleen McPhillips from the University of Newcastle, and Professor Tina Beattie at the University of Roehampton in London, was commissioned by the Catholic Women Speak network and is being submitted to the Vatican as part of the process of Synod 2021-23.

The findings were drawn from responses submitted by 17,200 women from 104 countries from 8 March to 26 April this year.

The survey included more than 20 closed questions, where respondents were invited to choose from a set of responses about their faith, practice and views about the Church, and only three open-ended questions.

The study aims to provide insights into the Catholic population in this country and inform understanding of it might develop in the future.

“What is disappointing is not only the loaded nature of the survey, but also that those were the findings that they showcased at the front end in the executive summary when actually there was some really lovely rich data that could have been showcased, but wasn’t, and someone made a decision about that,” she said.

When the survey was released in March, Dr Martyr wrote in The Catholic Weekly that most of the questions are “deliberately exclusive of conservative Catholics” and allowed for no nuance in responses.

“For example, we’re asked if we think radical reform is needed in the Church. I do think that radical reform is needed in the Church – but my idea of ‘radical’ and someone else’s is going to be completely different,” she wrote.