This quote is from Dorothy L. Sayer's essay Are Women Human?
"When the pioneers of university training for women demanded that women should be admitted to the universities, the cry went up at once: "Why should women want to know about Aristotle?" The answer is NOT that all women would be the better for knowing about Aristotle… but simply: "What women want as a class is irrelevant. I want to know about Aristotle. It is true that most women care nothing about him, and a great many male undergraduates turn pale and faint at the thought of him - but I, eccentric individual that I am, do want to know about Aristotle, and I submit that there is nothing in my shape or bodily functions which need prevent my knowing about him.""1
Academia isn't what it used to be in Sayers' day, but it's taken time for women to overcome this sort of prejudice. In The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean tells the story of Maria Goeppert-Mayer who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1963. She had a hard time getting any university to take her seriously as a student and then as a researcher because she was a woman. She had access to university facilities because her husband was a physicist, so they let her tag along but usually as an unpaid researcher. Those who thought that physics wasn't for women were proven wrong when Goeppert-Mayer won the Nobel Prize. However, cultural norms don't change overnight. The headline from her local newspaper still read, "Housewife Wins Nobel Prize."
During my undergraduate days in chemical engineering more than 30 years ago, 25% of my class were girls. There were less in civil and mechanical. Electrical engineering won the prize for the least number - only two young women. I can't remember if they endured all 4 years or not. Now that my daughter is studying physics, I am glad she has many more opportunities than 30-50 years ago. The push for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) provides needed support in fields that are still dominated by men.
But I think theology still lags behind Aristotle and STEM. The culture of American Christianity over the last 50 years has not encouraged the serious study of theology even for men. We live in such a pragmatic age where Christianity is valued primarily for what it does for me. If this is the case, then why is it necessary to know God for Himself alone? Application can't help but come from that knowledge, but the faith once delivered to the saints is more than 12 steps to a happy family. I hope I will live to see a theological climate change, not just for women but for the church as a whole. I want to do all I can, even if it is a mite, toward that end.
1. Are Women Human? Dorothy L. Sayers, Eerdmans, 1971, pp. 20-21.
"When the pioneers of university training for women demanded that women should be admitted to the universities, the cry went up at once: "Why should women want to know about Aristotle?" The answer is NOT that all women would be the better for knowing about Aristotle… but simply: "What women want as a class is irrelevant. I want to know about Aristotle. It is true that most women care nothing about him, and a great many male undergraduates turn pale and faint at the thought of him - but I, eccentric individual that I am, do want to know about Aristotle, and I submit that there is nothing in my shape or bodily functions which need prevent my knowing about him.""1
Academia isn't what it used to be in Sayers' day, but it's taken time for women to overcome this sort of prejudice. In The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean tells the story of Maria Goeppert-Mayer who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1963. She had a hard time getting any university to take her seriously as a student and then as a researcher because she was a woman. She had access to university facilities because her husband was a physicist, so they let her tag along but usually as an unpaid researcher. Those who thought that physics wasn't for women were proven wrong when Goeppert-Mayer won the Nobel Prize. However, cultural norms don't change overnight. The headline from her local newspaper still read, "Housewife Wins Nobel Prize."
During my undergraduate days in chemical engineering more than 30 years ago, 25% of my class were girls. There were less in civil and mechanical. Electrical engineering won the prize for the least number - only two young women. I can't remember if they endured all 4 years or not. Now that my daughter is studying physics, I am glad she has many more opportunities than 30-50 years ago. The push for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) provides needed support in fields that are still dominated by men.
But I think theology still lags behind Aristotle and STEM. The culture of American Christianity over the last 50 years has not encouraged the serious study of theology even for men. We live in such a pragmatic age where Christianity is valued primarily for what it does for me. If this is the case, then why is it necessary to know God for Himself alone? Application can't help but come from that knowledge, but the faith once delivered to the saints is more than 12 steps to a happy family. I hope I will live to see a theological climate change, not just for women but for the church as a whole. I want to do all I can, even if it is a mite, toward that end.
1. Are Women Human? Dorothy L. Sayers, Eerdmans, 1971, pp. 20-21.
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