Jesuits and the 'situation of women'

I see NCR has an editorial supporting women's ordination. This comes in the wake of Fr. Bourgeois' excommunication and laicizing (Dismissed U.S. priest vows to keep fighting for women's ordination).

While the Church of England works out the details on women bishops, our church encourages a climate of fear around even the *discussion* of the subject of women's ordination. Despite this, a few others besides Fr. Bourgeois have spoken up for women - Robert Egan SJ and William Barry SJ, to name a couple - and perhaps it's not surprising that they're Jesuits, given the 34th General Congregation's statement on the "Situation of Women in Church and Civil Society" ...

]...] 6. Church teaching certainly promotes the role of women within the family, but it also stresses the need for their contribution in the Church and in public life. It draws upon the text of Genesis, which speaks of men and women created in the image of God (Gn 1,27) and the prophetic praxis of Jesus in his relationship with women. These sources call us to change our attitudes and work for a change of structures. The original plan of God was for a loving relationship of respect, mutuality and equality between men and women, and we are called to fulfill this plan. The tone of this ecclesial reflection on Scripture makes it clear that there is an urgency in the challenge to translate theory into practice not only outside, but also within, the Church itself.
- find the whole document on this page.

For further reading, there are a number of articles on women and the church at this page.