Building on feminist and post-colonial approaches in the sociology of religion, which have challenged the binary opposition between "religious" (and thus oppressed) women and "secular" (and thus emancipated) women, this study explores the experiences of women belonging to three Italian Catholic organizations that display different orientations toward gender issues (innovative, ambivalent, and traditional). It examines how these women navigate inner tensions and conflicts between the gender roles prescribed by their religious context and the expectations of contemporary society, in other words, how distinct structures of meaning and belonging remain cohesive. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the study investigates women's beliefs and experiences of faith, and how their religious and secular identities intersect in everyday life.