Symbolic Violence and Women Priests in the Church of England

Women priests in the Church of England are subject to discrimination that is legitimised and justified through gendered theologies. Through the lens of Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence, this article explores the harms perpetrated as women are constructed as differently human by both the Church’s structure and by the theological discourses that define the social and the relational. Whilst the notion of misrecognition suggests collusion, the argument concludes that women priests navigate their recognition of symbolic violence and the silencing mechanisms in place in different ways. The conclusion suggests that misrecognition needs to be reinterpreted and developed with more nuance to account for the agency of women priests, and that gendered theology should be treated as discourse through which symbolic violence is perpetrated to maintain masculine dominance.