Catholic Religious Sisters' Identity Dilemmas as Committed and Subjugated Workers: A Narrative Approach

Catholic religious sisters in their construction of identity position themselves as happy and committed workers for God. In addition, their narratives revealed that they are positioned by authority figures of religious life as subjugated workers, who are required to sacrifice professional skills, self-care and even their very commitment as religious to become subservient workers. Based on a doctoral thesis which sampled 18 participants from two religious congregations in Nigeria and using the lens of dialogical self-theory I-positions, this paper portrays the dilemmas of identity construction whereby the religious sisters integrate mutual and opposing positions to constructing a coherent sense of ‘who they are’ and ‘are becoming.’ Analyzing these findings, this paper presents the tensions and contradictions the participants encounter within the context of living religious life in reference to work. Consequently, this paper calls for further research toward exploring the impact of work on Catholic religious sisters’ identity construction.