The Feminine Genius in Fiction: How Strong Catholic Women Show Up in Story

Anything but Feminine

Growing up, I was anything but feminine. I had Tonka trucks and Nerf footballs. I played barefoot and kickball in the creek. And while I coveted a Cabbage Patch Kid along with my generation, I bawled every time my mom made me put on a dress.

I never thought I was a boy or wanted to be a boy, but girl stuff just didn't interest me.

I was a bigtime tomboy, and didn't fit in with the girls who bought monogrammed purses and Benetton perfume.

Even though my Saturdays were spent on the ball field instead of dance lessons, on the inside, I was sensitive, mature, and highly intuitive.

My feminine genius was developing but had no outlet in my tomboy-facing world.

Fast forward through those critical developing years and into my career where I was taught to stop starting sentences with, "I feel," because they make me 'look week in front of my male colleagues.'

In the same year, my proposal to remove the requirement to wear pantyhose and makeup to the office was denied.

So, keep my sensitivities, my intuition, and my maternity to myself, but be sure and highlight my fidelity and strength in the most masculine way possible - as long as I wore a skirt and lipstick.

I had no understanding of the feminine genius at that time. Equality meant being more like a man. When that didn't play out well, we then expected men to become more feminine to make the playing field more 'equal.' To have a sense of femininity was to wear prairie dresses and long, braided hair or become bra-burning, fist-in-the-air feminists. There was no middle ground that encouraged and celebrated the emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical genius of womanhood. (I think the same could be said for manhood, but I'll let them tackle that.)

Then, along came Pope John Paul II (now Saint). In his Letter to Women, Pope John Paul II proclaims that "society certainly owes much to the "genius of women".  He calls on us to reflect on this and what it means as part of God's plan for us as complementary to man.

The more I learned about the Church’s teaching on women—the real, deep, unfiltered teaching—the more I realized God had written the Feminine Genius into my very being. Not in spite of my tomboy tendencies. But through them. And I just knew that I not only had to rewrite my stories to reflect Catholic women, I had to ensure my fiction reflected the feminine genius of women. Even Tomboys.

Why The Feminine Genius Matters in Catholic Women’s Fiction

When I write female characters, I don’t start with their appearance or love life. I start with what makes them strong. I build them with the same brushstrokes God used to build us—layered, flawed, fierce, feminine.

Yes, on the page they're in Chuck Taylor's instead of heels. But more importantly, they fight for what’s good, pause when they’re called, and learn—often through pain—what it means to receive rather than control.

Because that’s what the Feminine Genius is. It’s not frilly (but can be!). It’s not a checklist. And it’s not a threat to men.

It’s the fingerprint of God on the soul of a woman.

And if you’re a tomboy Catholic like me, you might just find your home here—right where strength meets surrender.