Gender and society !!!!

types of feminism

• Traditionalists see feminists as irrationally attempting to deny the reality of their own nature regarding what would make them happy- Feminists see traditionalism as a man-made ideology

• Liberal feminism is the view that men and women should be equal in their rights and opportunities in society

• Radical feminism is the view that equal rights is not enough to guarantee equality- our culture needs to be challenged and changed.

• Gender Traditionalism is the view that traditional gender roles are natural and that human life is best when following them.

Traditional Christian gender roles

• more fundamental traditionalist views

• Genesis Eve was created to be Adam’s ‘helper’.

• Augustine interprets this as meaning that a man by himself contains the imagio dei, but a woman does not. Only when combined with husband as his helper can a woman be in the image of God.

• Eve’s was the first to fall into sin. Her punishment was pain in childbirth and that her husband will “rule over you”

• St Paul says that because of this, women should not have authority over a man and can be saved through becoming mothers

• “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man

• But women will be saved through childbearing”. (1 Timothy 2:12

• “Wives, submit to your own husbands as you do the Lord- for their “own benefit and good”

• dycotomoy between ytraditional and liberal

Feminist biblical criticism

• Biblical Patriarchy Bible is man-made purpose of subjugating women

• Bible, or at least the sexist parts of it, are not the perfect word of God

• Hume points out, reason is a slave of the passions- women support them by being passive in the home, appeals to the self-interest of men

counter

• Traditional Christians might respond that that the Bible is God’s inspired word. If God wants men and women to be different, then that’s what God wants

• women who reject these bible passages are essentially acting like Eve did

• All humans are called to a high standard by God, but many prefer to disobey

• ephesians tells men to love wives as christ loved the church

Liberal feminist theology

• Bible is not the perfect word of God. It is full of errors- product of the human mind- in enlightenment period Bible was shown to contain scientific and historical errors

• words of the Bible are therefore just human interpretations of divine

• Jesus himself seemed to be progressive- modified some of the old testament laws.

• Christians should follow this example and continually update and improve Christian theology and ethics.

Ruether’s feminist theology  

• Bible contains patriarchal verses, but also verses that are in favour of equality. The Bible is therefore inconsistent on this issue and cannot itself coherently support the traditional patriarchal view of gender roles

• golden thread - Reuther describes this golden thread as the ‘prophetic-liberating tradition’. It includes:

  1. God’s defence the oppressed such freeing the Jews in Exodus.

  2. Jesus’ treatment of marginalised people (including the poor and women).

  3. Jesus’ criticism of the established religious views that serve to justify and sanctify the dominant, unjust social order.

  4. Jesus’ moral teachings like the golden rule.

• women well, adulterous, neither man nor women, martha, galatians, bleedng women

Mulieris Dignitatum argument 1 JP2

• catholic view

• Motherhood is a woman’s telos; natural purpose

• women are ‘naturally disposed to motherhood’

• motherhood creates a ‘special openness’

• fulfilment and purpose of the female personality, especially that of compassion, comes from virginity and motherhood

• based on Natural law reasoning about telos

counter

• feminists point to anthropological study of different human civilisations, where it is found that there is a large degree of variation regarding gender roles between different cultures

• motherhood is just a cultural invention by men

• so men can be active in the world- overrepresentation in important roles of power in our society (e.g. politics, business, etc).

• women are made not born

• Simone de Beauvoir also rejects the idea that motherhood is a woman’s telos- radical feminist who was an existentialist like Sartre

• no objective purpose/telos because “existence precedes essence”

• people cling to fabricated notions of objective purpose like telos because they are afraid of the intensity of the freedom involved in having to create their own purpose

Mulieris Dignitatum argument 2

• There are important and valued women in Christian history/theology

• many female European saints and that Jesus coming to earth was only possible because of a woman

• claim is that Christianity can’t be sexist since there are women it holds in high regard

counter

• Simone de Beauvoir argues that the Christian valuing of Mary shows that it is only through being a man’s “docile servant that she will be also a blessed saint” in Christianity

• Mary Daly- Mary is portrayed as a passive empty ‘void waiting to be made by the male’

• ‘rape victim’

• Jesus’ mother Mary is indeed put on a pedestal by Christianity, but only to encourage women to become passive, submissive and obedient so that women would all the better become the sexual property of men.

• slave owner saying they like and respect the subservient obedient slaves

Simone de Beauvoir

• radical feminist second wave

• wrote ‘ second sex’

• religion is merely a tool of the male oppressor group which keeps women under control

• “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.”- result of socialisation, not biology

• girls are socially pressured to think the meaning of their life is marriage

• motherhood forces women to sacrifice their own desires and selves for the sake of child-rearing

• Liberal feminism seeks to give women the same rights and choices as men, but de Beauvoir criticised this for being insufficient

• truly combat patriarchy requires people to “destroy the concept of motherhood”

counter

• Radical Feminists are too negative towards motherhood

• any woman who chooses to be a mother is suffering from ‘internalised misogyny’

• need focus on 3rd wave intersectionality etc

• Mary O’Brien is a naturalistic feminist who argued that motherhood can be a positive thing if women are in contro

eval

• women are brought up in an environment which makes them less likely to think of themselves as scientists or business people

• if motherhood is genuinely chosen, it can be positive

• oppressive culture that existed in the 1940s

Pinker

• atheist and scientist

• in favour of biology

• in favour of liberal feminism

• ‘tabula rasa’ meaning ‘blank slate’- zero innate cognitive differences between men and women

• men and women, on average, have different temperaments, interests and goals despite no innate differences

counter

not biology

• Society might condition men and women differently in those traits

• oppression of women and therefore the social conditioning that follows from oppression could be the cause of the universality of gender roles.

eval

• “The gender paradox” is the name given to the statistically observed phenomenon that as gender equality increases in a society, the gender split in terms of the different lifestyle and profession choices men and women make also increases. Some argue this is best explained by biological essentialism

Anne Oakley

• a sociologist

• ‘maternal instinct’ comes from culture rather than biolog

• Paul 11 is wrong to think that God created women with a maternal instinct

• many women found it frustrating to be a stay-at-home mothe

• orroborates de Beauvoir’s claim that women are forced to sacrifice their life goals to bring up their children which seems unfair – why is it not equally the responsibility of the man?

counter

• Alternative explanation of Oakley’s data

• it could be that childhood neglect creates traumas to interfere w maternal

eval

• if the maternal instinct evolved then it might not come from God

• The science of human nature is very controversial and it is extremely difficult to prove anything on either side of this debate

family

• churches rejection of homosexual families

• marriages should be heterosexual and focus on children

• secular feminists have turned relationships into revolving around sex rather than family- contraception etc

counter

some christians believe

• homosexual families can still love and bring up a child

• multiple types of family in modern society- blended, single, married, extended

• same sex marriage legal

eval

• many traditionals see they are called to parenthood

• need traditional heterosexual bible cincerns family

• shows why christian vies are wrong