Women Breaking Boundaries: A Grail Journey, 1940-1995

by Janet Kalven

Through memoir, interviews, and historical overview, Women Breaking Boundaries chronicles the evolution in the United States of the Grail—an organization of Catholic lay women dedicated to restoring the Christian spirit to all aspects of life. Janet Kalven, who has been part of the movement since its inception in the early 1940s, traces its development through 1995.

347 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Janet Kalven (May 21, 1913 — April 24, 2014) was a feminist Catholic educator and writer associated with the Grail.

Janet Kalven was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Rose Nathan and Harry Kalven. After finishing high school as valedictorian of her class, she attended the University of Chicago, where writer Jane Kesner was her friend and assigned "big sister". She graduated from the University of Chicago in 1934. Later in life she earned a master's degree in adult education from Boston University.

Her family background was Jewish, but Janet Kalven became a Roman Catholic convert as a young woman.

Late in life, Kalven moved from Grailville to buy a converted school building in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lived and created affordable housing for women.

Janet Kalven died April 24, 2014, at age 100, in Milford, Ohio.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an invaluable history of the life, times, and work of the Grail Movement in the United States. For anyone interested in Catholic laity, women in the Church, the Liturgical Movement or Rural life this is a must-read!