Is Christianity Good for Women?

Sad to say, to ask a question like “Is Christianity Good for Women?” is becoming a bit of a hard sell. The number of sex abuse scandals, plus spiritual abuse stories, makes it a hard sell. And, if it could not get worse, it did because we have seen so-called Christian leaders covering up, defending, or supporting known abusers, which is not exactly a magnet for attracting women.

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Okay, dumpster fire of male depravity aside, I believe that Christianity has been and is good for women.

In fact, I can demonstrate this historically. There was a time when Christianity was known, and even despised for being Pro-Woman, Pro-Child, and Pro-Slave!

It’s true. The pagan critic of Christianity Celus despised Christianity as a religion of stulti, the powerless, lowly, and servile, a religion of “slaves, women, and children.”

Yet not everyone agrees. Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom from Religion Foundation claims that “Organized religion always has been and remains the greatest enemy of women’s rights.”

At one level, that is true, but it’s certainly not the whole story.

---

To read further, consider joining the “Aviary” by taking out a paid subscription, only $7 per month or $75 per year, supports me in my ministry and scholarship, and gets you 3-4 posts per week on biblical studies, Christianity and gender relationships, cultural commentary, book reviews, previews of my forthcoming books, and some cool videos.

As Tom Holland points out, the Greco-Roman world, and its vestiges in Christendom, believed Aristotle who said that “The female is, as it were, an inadequate male” who had become malformed and thus inferior in the womb. Yet what stood against that was the Bible, with its claim that men and women were both, even only together, in the “image of God” (Gen 1:28) and the apostle Paul’s testimony that men and women are “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). In fact, Aristotle and Apostle symbolized the tension in western thought that it had inherited a view of hierarchy but had been taught equality on the basis of religion. In the course of time, the Apostle came to displace Aristotle as the moral compass of the western world, but it took centuries.

The irony is that Christians, as they too wrestled with notions of hierarchy and equality pregnant in their tradition have both championed and obstructed the rights of women.

Opposition to forced abortion, infanticide (esp. for female infants), and child marriage were a revolution brought about by Christianized scruples. The defence of women’s inheritance rights and the plight of widows were also features of a Christianized society. All this happened even as Christian realms prohibited women from holy orders and Christian rulers passed laws on weird things like women were not allowed to write or receive letters without a male chaperone.

It was Christian missionaries in India who strove to end the practice of suttee (widow burning) and missionaries in China who sought to end the practice of foot finding.

It was Pandita Ramabai, an evangelical Christian in India, who strove to end INdia’s caste system and establish the Mukti Missin, which saved the lives of thousand of women and girls.

In many cases today, it is Christian organizations that are leading the charge against sex trafficking, which predominantly affects women.

To sum it up, I’d contend that Christianity is good for women in several key ways:

Education: Christian organizations have played a significant role in establishing schools and educational institutions for girls and women in many parts of the world, providing them with access to education and literacy.

Social Services: Many Christian organizations and churches run charitable programs that support women in need, such as shelters for abused women, food banks, and healthcare services.

Advocacy for Women's Rights: Throughout history, certain Christian groups and individuals have advocated for women's rights, including the right to vote, access to education, and protection from discrimination and violence.

If I may channel some Tom Holland. Yes, the history of Christianity and women is chequered, but in the grander scheme of things, Christianity has created conditions in which the negative Christian treatment of women could be forcefully criticized. In other words, Christianity has bequeathed to the world a testimony about the equal value of women, launched a trajectory that would take us towards equality even if it evolved into secular forms of feminism, and forged the tools by which negative Christian treatment of women would itself be critiqued and denounced.

What about you, any examples of Christianity that show that Christianity has been/is good for women?

For the ladies out there, is being part of a Christian church good for you, do you feel like is better as a Christian woman?