Tried With Fire

the two most important qualities [of the Ideal woman] were obedience and femininity... She wrote, "The first law of Heaven is obedience, and it should be the first law of every home." As a practical reminder of women's obedience to men, Andelin presented each her of students with a gold-painted dowel to represent her husband's authority. Then she assigned students to give the gold stick to their husbands in order to provide the couple with the opportunity to discuss their respective roles in a humorous manner. "The husbands like it, and often hang their sticks on the wall as a reminder and threaten to use it if the wife doesn't obey," she said. [1] Helen Andelin's book Fascinating Womanhood (1963)   was probably the mother of all conservative women's books to combat the 2nd wave of feminism. The above quote regarding her view on male authority isn't an anomaly but the norm. The man "was created in the image of God and given domini...

At first glance, this video is an over-the-top parody of traditionalist ideas from the 1950's, but it may be closer to the truth than we would like to believe: It was widely believed in the nineteenth century that "while sinful man was controlled by his brain, delicate woman was controlled by her reproductive organs." Women had wombs that were used for physical creation; men had brains that were used for mental creation... From this belief derived not only the notion of woman's irrational, unpredictable, and mysterious "feminine" nature, but also the idea that childbearing was every woman's ultimate fulfillment while intellectual pursuits were the fulfillment of the masculine nature. A woman who pursued intellectual activities therefore assumed for herself a masculine nature, such women of the nineteenth century were often accused of being "hermaphrodites in mind." Much was made of the supposed smaller size of the female brain and the ...

Last week, Lisa and Aimee got the ball rolling with their posts ( here and here ) on women's ministry and specifically where middle-aged women fit into the picture. As a woman in her 50's, I appreciate that my friends have started this discussion, so if you haven't read their posts, please do. However, I want to take a step back even further and consider what are the expectations of women's ministry ? I've broken this one question into three sub-questions which have spawned even more, so consider yourself forewarned. Who is the focus of women's ministry? The go-to verses about women's ministry are Titus 2:3-5, older women teaching younger women what is good. There is no question of the need to train those who will carry on after we are gone. But is this the sum total of what women's ministry should be? Namely, is the focus only on the younger generation? If so, could this lead to the possibility of older saints falling through the cracks? What is the...

A letter to the editor from a male mechanical engineering student at Eastern Washington University recently went viral. This letter was addressed to the women in his engineering classes and highlighted the subtle discrimination toward women in this field of study. One statement was of particular interested to me because my experience was more like that of this male student: I did not, for example, grow up in a world that discouraged me from focusing on hard science.  I grew up in a Christian family with several female scientists including my mom. I studied chemical engineering and computer science in the 80's when women were beginning to break into these previously male-dominated fields. I don't recall any derogatory attitudes. The course material alone was sufficient to weed out students from the programs regardless of their gender. After grad school, my first manager and client contacts were women. So based on my limited observations, I don't think discouraging g...