The History of Feminism and the Church: Part I

From Gospel Translations

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt and summary of Mary Kassian's book, The Feminist Gospel: The Movement to Unite Feminism with the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 1992).

Early Feminism

In the 1790s and early 1800s, a flurry of books on the rights of women and the equality of the sexes signaled the beginning of the "first wave" of feminism. Then, in 1848 one hundred American women gathered at a convention in Seneca Falls, New York to ratify a "Declaration of Sentiments" regarding the basic natural rights of women. The "Declaration", drafted primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, catalogued 15 grievances. Stanton, catalogued 15 grievances. They complained that women did not have the right to vote, were barred from "profitable employment", were excluded from universities and the professions of theology, medicine and law, and were obligated to obey their husbands. 

The women's movement gained momentum over the next few decades. Doors opened to higher education and many professions. Laws were passed which protected the economic and property-owning rights of married women. In 1920 American women obtained the right to vote. By 1930, they were entering the work force in greater numbers.

But then, for reasons that are difficult to pinpoint, the movement stalled. Perhaps it was because of the war, perhaps it was because the dream attained did not bring the satisfaction it promised, but within one generation, many women ceased to pursue the professional ends they had previously sought and returned home. The fervor of the 1920s and 30s was lost. The public cry for women's equality became dormant.

Breaking The Silence

French philosopher Simone deBeauvoir broke the silence about women's issues and began the rejuvenation of the movement. Her book, The Second Sex, was published in 1949 and translated into English in 1953. She was trained in philosophy and was the companion of Jean-Paul Sartre. They shared a common philosophy known today as existentialism. It is based on the concept that the individual is entirely free, and must therefore accept commitment and full responsibility for his acts and decisions in an uncertain and purposeless world. Her model for male-female interaction is based upon this existentialist philosophy.

Her primary thesis was that women are second-class citizens in today's world. Man is the measure of woman. He is the absolute, the essential. "She is the incidental, the inessential ... the other." This inequality was found in every area of society: Economics, industry, politics, education and language. The domain of women was that of "Kitchen, Church and Children." Women had been suppressed, named and defined by men. They had been robbed of their autonomy. They needed to realize that they are autonomous and must accept responsibility to shape their own destiny.

How can they do this? Women must rebel against male superiority and refuse to succumb to their traditional roles of wife, mother and sweetheart. They need to band together and organize themselves. All forms of socialism that liberate women from their families must be pursued. The state should assume responsibility for her maternal functions that restrict her participation in the work-force. Marriage should be a free agreement that the spouses may break at will. Maternity must be voluntary. Abortion and contraception must be readily and legally available. Pregnancy leaves should be paid for by the state, which would assume charge of the children.

Americanizing Debeauvoir

Because of its existentialist and philosophical terminology,The Second Sex made little initial impression in North America, at least until Betty Friedan popularized and Americanized it in The Feminine Mystique (1963). Together these two works form the basis for the modern feminist movement.

Friedan wrote of millions of women "kissing their husbands goodbye in front of the picture window, depositing their station wagonsful of children at school, and smiling as they ran the new electric waxer over the spotless kitchen floor. They baked their own bread, sewed their own and their children's clothes, kept their new washing machines and dryers running all day. They changed the sheets on the beds twice a week instead of once, took the rug-hooking class in adult education, and pitied their poor frustrated mothers, who had dreamed of having a career. Their only dream was to be perfect wives and mothers; their highest ambition to have five children and a beautiful house, their only fight to get and keep their husbands. They had no thought for the unfeminine problems of the world outside the home; they wanted the men to make the major decisions. They gloried in their role as women, and wrote proudly on the census blank: ‘Occupation: housewife.'"

Women had been trying to conform themselves to this idealized picture, but the reality of their daily lives left them feeling empty and dissatisfied. Friedan called this the "trapped housewife syndrome" and maintained that it was quite common.

Women had an identity problem. They had no purpose. The only way they could escape this dilemma was through education and work. Women must make a life-time commitment to a field of thought and to a work of serious importance to society. They must seek to shape the world in tangible ways. To do this, everything will need restructuring: Professions, marriage, the family, the home. Women must become like men. They needed to take control of their own lives, name themselves and set their own destiny.

Beginnings Of Christian Feminism

While deBeauvoir was writing her book, Katharine Bliss was doing a survey, The Service and Status of Women in the Church, for the World Council of Churches. She noted that women were very involved in church, but their involvement was limited to certain activities and they were excluded from leadership and teaching roles. Her report called for a reevaluation of women's role in church. Though it was completed in 1952, her report received little attention before the early sixties.

In 1961 the Journal of Pastoral Psychology began a series of articles on "Male and Female." In one of these articles, William Douglas claimed the church was quenching the gifts of women by denying them ordination. Because the church had adopted the patriarchal attitude of the culture of its origin, women could have a call from God, but not from the church. How could the church change? Douglas mentioned two possible courses of action. (1) The church could return to the New Testament belief in the priesthood of all believers and dissolve the clergy-laity distinction, opening ministry to all, both men and women alike. (2) Or the church could maintain its current structure and begin ordaining women. By and large, this second possibility was the course that was followed.

During the 1960s Christian feminists set themselves on a course parallel to that pursued by feminists in secular society. Women needed to be allowed to name themselves. They should be allowed to do everything a man could do, in the same manner and with the same recognized status. Only this would constitute true equality.

Their arguments for role androgyny stressed several points. First, the church fathers had been wrong in their assessment of the nature of women. Aristotle saw woman as a misbegotten or defective male, incapable of reason. Since the human species is characterized by rationality, women are less than fully human. This philosophical background led Thomas Aquinas to conclude that man is the principle and end of woman. She exists for man and not the reverse. She lacks the wisdom required to be a teacher. But, argued the Christian feminists, advances in psychology, anthropology and genetics had demolished this Aristotelian-Thomistic synthesis. Women are not inferior to men, nor do they have a smaller intellectual capacity. Therefore, they should be ordained.

Second, the Bible, rightly interpreted, teaches the equality of men and women. Feminists appealed to texts such as Genesis 2 and Galatians 3:28. They pointed to Mary learning at the feet of Jesus, to Phoebe being sent out as an ambassador to the churches, to the five daughters of Philip who exercised a prophetic ministry, and to Priscilla who taught and discipled Apollos. Surely if Scripture endorses these women and their ministries, nothing should prevent women today from teaching and exercising authority, even if it went against longstanding social customs.

Beginnings Of Feminist Theology

Society and the church were moving in a more feminine direction. If theology was going to keep pace, it needed to change or risk becoming irrelevant. If women were going to be ordained, they needed a new theology.

Mary Daly answered this call to feminize the discipline of theology. She was a member of the Roman Catholic Church and taught at the Jesuit-run Boston College. In 1968 she published The Church and the Second Sex, where she severely criticized the Roman Catholic Church. As the title indicates, Daly relied heavily on the work of deBeauvoir. Yet contrary to the French philosopher, Daly believed the Church was redeemable.

The Church was guilty of (1) causing women's legal oppression and deceiving women into enforced passivity; (2) teaching women's inferiority in its doctrine; (3) harming women through its moral teaching; and (4) excluding women from Church leadership roles. The traditional doctrine of God had to undergo radical revision. Many Catholics have the vague notion that God is of the male sex. They then extrapolate from this that the male is God. This must be completely rejected. The doctrines of divine omnipotence, immutability and providence would likewise have to be jettisoned, since they discourage women from seeking change. As well, the idea of God as a jealous and vengeful deity would have to go since it helped to sustain and perpetuate androcentric theological teachings.

To be continued in future issues.