Gender and Society Flashcards
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society - Old Testament
- Gen 1:27 – men and women are equal
- Lev 12:1-5 – a woman who gives birth to a boy is impure for 33 days, 66 if it is a girl
- Gen 2:7 – Eve is made out of Adam’s rib, she is thus subordinate to him
- Deut 24:1 – only a man can divorce his wife.
- Deut 22 – a woman should be a virgin when she gets married
- Exodus 21:7 – the wife is the property of her husband
- However, Prov 31:10-31 – speaks positively of the many excellent qualities of a capable wife. Any misogynistic tone is simply a reflection of the contemporary Jewish culture, expecting to find biased rules against women.
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society - early church
• Acts 16:13-15 – Lydia from Thyatira who is said to be a dealer in purple cloth listens to what Paul said and invited him and his cohort to stay in her house.
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society - NT general
- Mark 5 – bleeding woman, JC commends her for her faith
- Mary and Martha, Luke 10
- Luke 24:9-12 – women are the ones who see the empty tomb. Apostles do not believe them. Interesting that JC appeared to women even though their testimony is not accepted in court.
- John 4 – interacts with Samaritan woman, breaks conventional rules and leading to her conversion
- JC is a lot fairer in his treatment of women, even fallen women. Speaking to Samaritan Woman (‘menstruates from the cradle’) would have been significant for time. Shared pitcher of water with her = shocking.
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society - NT, Paul
- 1 Cor 11 – man is supreme over his wife. Women who pray and proclaim God’s message in public must cover their heads as women reflect the glory of man.
- 1 Cor 14 – women are to keep quiet in meetings and should not speak. They must ask their husbands to explain once they get home.
o H, translation of ‘lalein’ (yet still says they must be silent) - Ephesians 5:22-23
o Wives must submit to their husbands
o A husband has authority over his wife
o Husbands must love their wives like they love their bodies
o Man and woman will leave and cleave and become one
o Every husband must love his wife as himself and every wife must respect her husband - H, Paul does say in Gal 3 that ‘there is neither male nor female. We are all equal in Christ Jesus’
- H, Paul particularly reflective of time, was very strict Jew, seen in his depiction of women.
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society, augustine
- Eve is helper in the task of procreation
- Main difference between man and woman is bodily as they were both created to be rational, Eve was the archetype of what women should have been
- Adam becomes master over Eve
- Marriage is the closest that a couple can get to the pre-Fall relationship, only legit environment for sex
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society, augustine evaluation
- Genevieve Lloyd highlights how Augustine did in fact dismiss teachings of women’s inferior origins and subordination with her lesser reality as he viewed them as inconsistent with the Christian commitment to spiritual equality. Lloyd argues how to Augustine, women are only inferior in their helper status, rather than in rational spirit.
- Janet Soskice argues that Augustine believed that people were made in the Trinitarian image of God rather than in the image of the Son. Claims that Aug’s interpretation of 1 Cor 11:7 is critical of Paul’s suggestion that women are somehow not fully imago dei.
- H, depiction of women before the Fall is more for theory rather than literal view of how he saw women. Has only seen post-Fall women and thus this is the view that must be evaluated.
- H, can criticise literal interpretation of Fall.
- H, Augustine’s work very reflective of own life and state of moral paralysis.
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society, aquinas
• Believed women were created to help with procreation ‘since man can be more efficiently helped by another man in other works’
• Women should be subordinate; men are more intelligent
• It was right that men were made first and that woman was made out of man
1. Men, like God, are the ‘first principle’
2. Man and woman must live together for life, unlike other animals (however, Singer)
3. Man and woman are reunited for procreation and domestic life where man must dominate his wife. ‘Woman is defective and misbegotten’
• Influenced by Aristotle who claimed that a female is a defective male, yet Aquinas felt females’ creation was intentional.
• Medieval thought: men were the active part of creation and women were the passive recipient of their seed, which should grow into its replica i.e. male seed should grow into male, which is why females are defective. (Had no concept of reproductive biology, didn’t understand role of woman in reproduction)
• Women should dress to please their husbands, if unmarried you must not dress provocatively as this promotes lust in men.
• Women should never be priests as they incite men to lust, it is unbiblical and they are less intelligent than men.
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society, tertullian
Do you not realise that Eve is you? The curse God pronounced on your sex weighs still on the world. (…) You deserved death, and it was the son of God who had to die
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society, Luther general
- Ordained as a priest in 1507
- Disillusioned with aspects of Catholic Church and published 95 Theses
- Published pamphlets, opposed indulgences, opposed corruption in Church and promoted Church in vernacular
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society, Luther on marriage and celibacy
• Opposed RCC views on marriage and celibacy
o Pro-marriage, did not agree with celibacy
o Believed desire to marry was a normal human desire
1. Sex was not just procreation, had wife with 6 children
2. He thought that women were made for marriage and motherhood
a. ‘A woman does not have complete mastery over herself. God created her body that she should be with a man and bear and raise children’
3. A wife must not deny her husband sex, if she does then he can divorce her
a. ‘If you will not, another will; the maid will come if the wife will not’
4. Biology makes it clear that God intended men and women for different things
a. Men have broad shoulders and narrow hips = intelligence
b. Women have narrow shoulders and broad hips = stay at home
i. ‘For they have broad hips and a wide fundament to sit upon’
5. Sex is for procreation and thus women must be mothers even if they die in the process
a. ‘If women grow weary or even die while bearing children, that does no harm. Let them bear children to death, that’s what they’re there for’
6. Women should become wives so they do not fall to lust
7. Eve is to blame more than Adam for the Fall and this is a reason for women’s subordination
The Roles of Men and Women in the Family and Society, RCC and evaluation
• JP II in Mulieris Dignitatem 18-19 emphasises Mary as the mother of Jesus = dignity of womanhood
o Mary was not just a womb, complete mother as ‘motherhood concerns the whole person, not just the body’
o Imago dei = equality of men and women
o Woman = man’s helper. ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ = woman’s role as mother, yet this is not reciprocal. Eve helps Adam as much as Adam helps Eve.
o Believes in OS = spoiled relationship. Discrimination of women is result of Fall.
o Women should not masculinise themselves in the name of liberation. Vocation of women is motherhood and also virginity as shown through Mary.
o - Archaic gender roles, attempting to apply the archaic interpretation to the modern world
o – Feminist traits are societally determined/social constructs: what does it mean to be feminine?
different family structures
o Single parent families o Extended family o Childless family o Stepfamily o Same sex family
different views of family
• Essentialist view: distinctive feminine and masculine characteristics that are not the product of society, intrinsic to biology or nature.
o Roles linked to bodily form.
o Most natural form of family is with a heterosexual set of parents with children.
• Existentialist view: biological sex is of little significance, gender characteristics are the product of nurture i.e. culture and upbringing.
o Male dominated societies throughout history have tended to objectify women, which existentialists would argue is socially constructed. Doesn’t deny the importance of the body as a source of a person’s identity.
Factors that have change family social landscape in Britain
- Ease of divorce: average length of marriage before divorce is 11.7 years
- Decline in marriage: rate of marriage in 2014 was lowest since 1972
- Wedding ceremonies: 2014, 28% RE ceremonies, decrease of 0.8% since 2013
- Single parents: 2014, 2 mill single parents, ¼ of all families
- Births outside marriage and civil partnerships
- Gay and lesbian relationship: 4,850 same sex marriages in 2014
- Cohabitation: 3.2 mill in 2015
- Blended families/step children: 2011, 11% of families
Response of Liberal, reconstruction and radical feminism to the roles of men and women in the family and society, lib feminism context
o End of 19th century – ‘first-wave feminism’. Focused on giving women the vote
o 1960s – ‘second-wave feminism’, took on wider issues inc. sexual health and reproduction as well as the place of women in the workplace
o Mid 1960s – feminists joined the National Organisation for Women
