‘Childish’ and ‘Minors’? Deconstructing Prejudice and Identity Transformation Among Spanish Women Religious During the Long Sixties1

Abstract

This article explores the identity formation process undertaken by Spanish women's religious following the aggiornamento promoted by the Second Vatican Council. Specifically, it seeks to examine the context in which these women lived and acted, analysing the construction of their identities, their capacity for agency and transgression within ecclesiastical boundaries, as well as the meanings attributed to these actions. In doing so, the article investigates their agency with the primary objective of reconstructing the public debate generated by these renewal dynamics. To this end, it draws on archival materials, periodicals and other contemporary publications that formed the core of these public debates.