Let me talk a little about gender equality. I actually prefer saying it this way rather than calling it feminism because I personally see inequalities being detrimental to both sides of the gender gap. I think that to say we want equal rights for women is ignoring that to do so means we must also want equal rights for men.
So before we can start looking at creating equality among the sexes I think we need to understand why those inequalities are there to begin with. Mostly I believe it’s because technological changes occur so much faster than sociological changes can react. It takes generations for our roles to adapt to changes in the environment. If those roles are pressed to change then those in those roles will push back to maintain things where they are comfortable without thinking how much better things might be if their roles do change with changing times.
It made sense, maybe, 150 years ago and earlier that women attended to chores within the house while men took care of those chores outside of the house. I can understand that when work is done with muscle rather than machinery then the stronger people will be the ones doing the work that requires the most muscle. I also understand that prior to the age of baby formula and bottles women were better equipped to take care of the needs of babies. Technology changed all that but we still have our ideas of what roles we play based on the roles our parents imprinted on us that was imprinted upon them by their parents and so on. We don’t like to change and we don’t like our image of what and who we are to change.
Add into this the sexual tensions that relationships can introduce into the picture and I think we can see why we have developed the gender inequalities that we see. So how do we apply that insight into becoming a society that still embraces the differences in the sexes without propagating a culture of sexual inequality?
Personally I think the Apostle Paul has a lot to offer in how we do that but I really want to hear your opinions on this and to promote a discussion on the subject. Feel free to take this whichever way you feel led to take this in the comments.
