Christian Science Monitor – As a shareholder representative who believes in good pay for bottom-rung workers, Ruth Rosenbaum occasionally reminds corporate executives across the table from her that she has a doctorate in economics. In other words, she knows something about business.
But she may get more clout sometimes, she says, when she tells them something more personal: She’s a nun.
That’s partly because living under vows carries with it a certain moral authority, she says, even in plush boardrooms. It’s also because nuns are well-connected in ways that can stir even high-powered executives to action.
“Companies will say, ‘We have this program in country X’ ” to address a local problem, says Sister Rosenbaum. “And I have no qualms about saying, ‘We have sisters, or we know sisters, operating there. I’d like to talk with them to get some feedback about how this program really works on the ground.’ Just saying that anchors the dialogue in a deeper reality.”
In one niche of a financial world known for crisp suits and material passions, nuns in modest business attire have emerged as an unlikely group of senior stateswomen. Their role, earned through three decades of private-sector activism, has become one of representing both shareholders and the poor, whom they believe feel the impact of corporate policies most intensely.
