Gender Flashcards
What is the definition of a patriarchy?
Male dominated: a patriarchal society is one where men have more power than women
Who was one of the earliest female philosophers?
-Mary Wollstonecraft published her work ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ in 1792 in which she argued that women fundamentally have the same rights as men. Educating women was the highest priority- as well as refocusing them away from obsession with looks and outward accomplishments
-Wollstonecraft was an early challenge to the patriarchy of her day
What 3 historical waves is feminism usually divided into?
- First wave feminism. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, this focused on equal rights for women, such as in the right to vote
- Second wave feminism. During the 1960’s, this challenged patriarchy and pressed for women to have rights over their own selves, not just to exist as homemakers; the result was developments in sexual health
- Third wave feminism. This began in the 1990s and explores gender roles and identities; women need to change the approach they take to themselves, making sure they don’t conform to the stereotype of ‘white heterosexual woman from the west’
What are the different approaches to the relationship between men and women?
-Men are superior to women. A view dating back to the ancients, such as Plato and Aristotle, but also held by Aquinas, who described women as ‘defective’
-Men and women are of equal value. This is the idea that men and women are different, but of equal value, leading to mainly male and mainly female roles in the workplace and even in church leadership
-Women are superior to men. As advocated by Mary Daly: patriarchy in the church has hidden women’s superior knowledge
-Gender is not as straightforward as traditionally thought. We can express ourselves as one or other gender, or as a mixture; it is artificial and misleading to assign characteristics to gender and not necessary to identify with the biological identity we have
Where should and do Christianity stand on the relationship between men and women?
-Christianity has sometimes been seen to struggle with where it should stand in relation to the above bullet points. Some Christian’s have accepted women in leadership roles in the church; others believe it is a matter of theology, not equality, and that different rules apply in the context of the church
-Some Christian’s are accused of still supporting a patriarchal society. Contemporary Christian’s seem to be unsure how to respond to new issues such as gender identity and expression, sexuality and so on
-As we are in the middle of the third wave, Christian’s are often accused of being slow to respond and so churches can frustrate those anxious to bring about change
What does Genesis 5:22-33 teach about the roles of men and women in the family and society?
-This passage is traditional in it’s outlook, although it’s interpretation over the years has varied:
-‘Wives should submit to their husbands’
-‘The husband is the head of his wife’
It also puts a Christian twist on the traditional views
-The husbands leadership is like the leadership of Christ to the church
-Husbands should love their wives like Christ loved the church
-This Christian twist is actually quite radical in outlook- Christ loved the church so much he gave up his life for it, as a husband should do for his wife
-This familiar ‘body of Christ’ imagery also would have spoken to Paul’s readers who were used to the idea that the church is an inter connected body of people; here it reminds us that marriage is a small section of a wider community and so family life is part of the wider life of Christianity
What is a key quote from mulieris dignitatem?
“It is therefore necessary that the man be fully aware that in their shared parenthood he owes a special debt to the woman. No programme of ‘equal rights’ between women and men is valid unless it takes this fact fully into account
What is mulieris dignitatem?
-This text is a catholic 1988 letter of pope John Paul II on the dignity and vocation of women in response to feminism
-The emphasis was on respect for women- a respect that is mirrored by Mary, without whom the Christ event would not have happened
What were the key points of mulieris dignitatem?
-Motherhood, a natural follow on from marriage, which is part of the order of creation, comes from the total giving of a couple to each other, open to procreation, a way of sharing in God’s act of creation
-The psycho-physical structure of a woman is made for motherhood. Parenthood, although it is shared between the man and woman is more specially the women’s. The man should learn parenthood from the mother
-It is Mary’s acceptance of the message of the angel that begins the new covenant (the new relationship between God and humans brought about by Jesus)
-This understanding of motherhood must continue for modern mothers and they must be appropriately supported when their immense maternal love is challenged
What is said in mulieris dignitatem about motherhood/parenthood?
-In mulieris dignitatem, the catholic church attempts to underline the special dignity, deliberately given by God at creation, to women to be mothers. This reflects many Christian approaches to the topic as the ability of women to be mothers is seen as a great privilege and not in any way making them lesser beings.
-However, in the context of suspicion of patriarchal institutions, some might feel that this approach is patronising, or limiting the abilities of women
What is a response to motherhood in mulieris dignitatem?
A response to this might be to reject any view of women that defines them as mothers first and foremost. Reading on in the document, one might feel that the stark alternative being suggested by the pope for women is to be either mothers or virgins
What would fundamentalist protestant traditions say about motherhood/parenthood?
Fundamentalist protestant traditions, which might read the Ephesians passage in a literal sense, would emphasise the role of the woman as wide and mother: her role is primarily to create a home suitable for the husband. Other Protestants might take a view similar to that of the Catholic Church
What is a more liberal approach to motherhood/ parenthood?
A more liberal approach removes the idea of motherhood from the definition of women. In line with many moves within third wave feminism, it understands gender roles in less black and white terms. Mary may have been a role model, but not for everyone: just like Peter wouldn’t be a typical role model for all men
Reasons why motherhood is liberating?
-It is what women were created for and so it is a way of them fulfilling their purpose
-It draws on the natural abilities of women to be caring and nurturing
-Mulieris dignitatem suggests that motherhood is extremely liberating for women
-Some argue that a women’s desire to be a mother is biological
-A woman is able to provide the best start to the education of the next generation
Reasons why motherhood is restricting?
-A woman must give up her own life, interests and personality to take care of her children
-It slows down progress with careers, it affects bodily health
-When children leave home, a woman is left without a proper purpose
-Others argue that the desire is purely the result of social conditioning
-A women’s intelligence is wasted when at home with children
Where do the restricting arguments come from?
-The first three points on the ‘restricting’ side of the table come from the work of Simone de Beauvoir, whose work The second sex (1949) says that women over time have let themselves be made into the inferior gender, defined by their relationship with men as wife, lower and object
-De Beauvoir argued that society forms people into their gender identities and she calls on modern women to redefine who they are and to be who they want to be- whether that is a mother or not
What do traditional Christian’s believe about family?
-Traditional Christian’s would emphasise the importance of the type of family they see in the Bible: heterosexual and married. They might accuse some feminists of changing the idea of love between a couple from selfless Christian love to a love based on the sexual aspect of the relationship
-They argue that the Biblical model of marriage leads to support for struggling married couples in the community and a more stable society
What do other Christians believe about family?
-Other Christian’s accept that the traditional view of the family is not a reflection of the way people are made. If some are made homosexual and want to have children, then it follows that there will be loving families with same gender parents
-Any reluctance to endorse same gender parents is a societal issue, rather than a faith one for these Christian’s;
-Jesus himself welcomed those who did not fully conform to society; love needs to remain at the centre
-Another argument might be that in the Bible there are many different types of family- men with more than one wife or with children from concubines, for example
-The argument would go that the idea of family is not predominantly religious and is more cultural and Christianity must welcome any model that current society offers
Why could it be argued that the idea of family is entirely culturally determined?
-The family is seen as a microcosm of society- a society that is made up of families that work well is likely to work well itself. Recently, the notion of family has changed rapidly
-Marriage has been permitted in the UK for homosexual couples only since 2014 and this will lead to a greater number of children from same gender parents and inevitably lead to a change in the way that we look at families
-By this argument, the idea of family will be entirely determined by culture and Christian’s will need to decide how they react to what a family is
Why could It be argued that the idea of family is not entirely culturally determined?
-Christian’s believe that most are called to parenthood and family life, to mirror God’s love and creative work and so on. Many commandments in the Bible concern family life and catholic natural law supports families
-Holding love at the centre of family life also mirrors many Christian’s approach to ethics
-Those Christian’s who believe heterosexual marriage is a fundamental part of the order of creation will do all they can to defend this model of family life
What is Jesus’ challenge to the male warrior messiah expectation?
-At Jesus’ time, the messiah was expected to be a liberator of the line of David who would save people from the Romans. Ruether says that this is not the messiah, Jesus was. For Ruether:
-There was no expectation of the incarnation of God or of salvation through sacrifice
-Jesus was not a military leader- he rejected use of force to win arguments
-The kingdom of God was a place of harmony, not power
-Jesus rejected patriarchal God talk by using ‘Abba’ for God- meaning ‘daddy’; the dominant-subordinate dynamic was rejected in favour of a more familiar relationship
-Therefore the military (and therefore male) view of God is not needed; the fact that Jesus was biologically a man does not matter
What is God as the female wisdom principle?
-The person of ‘wisdom’ is very much present in later old testament books, perhaps left over from the earliest time of Judaism when monotheism wasn’t fully established.
-Wisdom is always portrayed as female. For Ruether, this wisdom principle has been lost in modern Christianity behind the patriarchal structures, especially the male focused view of the incarnation
What is a key quote by Ruether on Jesus as the incarnation of wisdom?
“The Logos who reveals the ‘father’, therefore, was presumed to be properly represented even though the Jewish wisdom tradition had used the female metaphor, Sophia, for the same idea”
What is Jesus as the incarnation of wisdom?
-Instead, Ruether feels we should recognise in Jesus that feminine aspect of God. Sophia can be found in John’s portrayal of Jesus as the word in John 1, in Paul’s reference to Jesus as the ‘wisdom of God’ in 1 Corinthians 1 and through a deeper understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit
-Ruether believes that this greater understanding will move Christianity in the right direction to understanding that Jesus’ maleness was not essential- he could have come as either gender
