Feminism & Social Justice

As a combined result from exposure to a new blog, along with conversations with some new acquaintances, I have been again pondering the issue of feminism (and the greater issue of social justice in which it resides).

I recently saw a sticker an acquaintance had placed on her coffee mug that said: “This is what feminism looks like.” When I asked her what feminism meant to her she proffered that her short definition would be equal opportunity and lack of discrimination/bias across gender lines.

The question I’m posing in this post is only semi-rhetorical. If you are aware of the theistic (particularly Judeo-Christian) belief that the world is not as it should be (i.e. not currently as God wants it to be), then the question is this: can humankind alone change the world to the way it should be? This question is relevant because if the answer is no, then serious re-evaluation of the purposes of pursuing social justice must be made.

I have non-theistic friends who firmly believe that a society can change—for the better—and make pursuing social justice an accomplishable priority. I have liberal friends who firmly believe that for a society to survive it must make social justice a priority. But after some cursory examination of the religious organizations I am acquainted with, I wonder if those organizations have the same beliefs on the matter of social justice.

When it comes to some of the overarching goals (as I understand them) of feminism—eliminating patriarchal bias in public, corporate, and private life; promoting gender equality; promoting sexual equality—do the majority Christian religious organizations actually want this? And if not, is there an acceptable alternative being offered?

There are 2 passages from the Bible (one OT & one NT) I think that are relevant to this question and are excerpted as follows:

To the woman He[God] said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Gen. 3:16 NIV

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything….However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife Eph. 5:22-24, 33

Go to online versions of: Genesis Chapter 3 / Ephesians Chapter 5

On the surface, the idea of submission appears to directly conflict with the idea of gender equality. I’ve heard numerous sermons attempting to explain what exactly submission is (and what it looks like in the modern world); and since I am no theologian I shall not attempt to recite them herein. I will only state this: status and power are not necessarily the same thing. Two individuals of equal status may not have equal power in a relationship at any particular time. If Joe and Jim open a business as equal partners, but divide the business responsibilities such that Joe manages the finances while Jim manages product; Joe may spend time giving Jim orders about when to buy or sell product, while Jim may give Joe orders about what products to buy or sell.

So even with the instruction (as given by the apostle Paul) for wives to submit to their husbands, it is premature (and likely erroneous) to conclude Paul implies that wives have a lesser status than their husbands.

But what about the Genesis passage where it is directly attributed to God saying a wife will be ruled by her husband? Well there are two points that are critical to understand this passage. God’s proclamation comes in response to Adam and Eve’s violation of His edict about not eating from The Tree of Knowledge. In other words, Eve’s punishment is to have painful childbirths and to be ruled by the husband she desires. If you buy the idea that God’s proclamation extends to all humankind, then conceivably we are all under the same punishments. In other words, all men receive the punishment given Adam, and all women receive the punishment given Eve. This does not seem to bode well for women seeking gender equality.

The second critical point of this passage, is it does not directly indicate what the ideal setup of a husband-wife pair should be. Some might argue that the passage’s preceeding description of life before the fall of mankind explains the ideal, but even those descriptions are very vague.

In short, the Bible’s stance on the matter of gender equality does not disagree with the gender equality goal of feminism. I will save discussion of patriarchal bias and sexual equality for another post.