Women's Role in Society (Book Notes: Ungodly Women)
In Ungodly Women: Gender and the First Wave of American Fundamentalism, Betty A. Deberg writes:
The education of women, especially higher education, was of greatest concern from 1880 to 1900, although the issue nearly dropped from view by the turn of the century. Although there were a few scattered comments in favor of identical education fro males and females, most commentary took one of two approaches. The first supported education for women within their sphere. Women should be taught to be “teachers to their children” and better housekeepers, and they should receive “some careful instruction regarding the beauty of girlhood as shown by modesty, by unselfishness, by unostentatious care for others.”
[In 1917], an article in the King’s Business said that even though women were superior to men intellectually, morally, and spiritually, “her divinely appointed position is that of subordination and it is her ruin to fight against that which God ... had ordained for her.” Women were warned that “man does not suffer as much as woman does when she gets out of place.”
Many people in modern America complain that motherhood and raising children have been devalued by the feminist movement and the efforts to get women into the workplace. These same people, however, are the religious conservatives who have throughout America’s history been responsible for the actual devaluing of women’s contributions to society.
Motherhood and raising children haven’t been devalued because of feminism and women working in the corporate world; instead, they have been devalued precisely because they are seen as “women’s work” and unsuitable for men. Women who work as CEOs are unembarrassed by this fact; there continues to be some embarrassment, however, on the part of men who life as “house husbands.” Is this because of feminism? Of course not.
The same is true in the many professions traditionally filled by women. Men who worked as nurses struggled for a long time against prejudice and discrimination — not so much by female nurses, but by other men who looked down upon male nurses precisely because nursing was considered a profession for women and, hence, of little value.
Religious conservatives say that they value mothers and motherhood, but their actions over the past couple of centuries speaks much more loudly. Greater valuation of occupations like raising a family won’t be achieved by stopping feminism and taking women out of the regular workforce. It will be achieved only when women’s contributions to society, whatever form they take, are valued as much as men’s contributions. That, however, won’t happen until women are valued as much as men.
The complaints of religious conservatives about feminism not only don’t serve to achieve that goal, but in fact hinder it — just as religious conservatives have been hindering women, their education, and their rights for millennia. Changes have been a long time in coming and we still have a long way to go.
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Comments
Feminism has destroyed not only the home but it has destroyed the sex life of women. When women are feeling secure at home and being Biblical women, they enjoy deeper and more satisfying orgasms. Only God’s way can bring this reward to a godly woman who is a traditional Biblical woman. You won’t ever know it until you learn to trust your husband and his leadership. A woman has to have a mindset of being committed and trusting. I am not saying she must submit to abuse. A husband won’t abuse a woman who has the best attitudes toward herself and role. Her dignity brings her much honor. Her children rise up and call her blessed and she is honored above all.
It’s strange to me that all the Biblical advice about marriage was written by either Paul, who was not married and argued that no one should marry, and Solomon, who had a thousand wives and three hundred concubines. Peter, perhaps the only disciple of Jesus who was married, had absolutely nothing to say about marriage and the “proper place” of wives.
I’d like to take a look at your evidence that Christian women have better orgasms. Where did you get your information?
Feminism has destroyed not only the home but it has destroyed the sex life of women.
Darn- someone should have told me I could have explosive, gooey multiple if only I didn’t have the nerve to vote and trust critical thinking. *le sigh*
Seriously, anti-women folks will stoop to anything to make women give up self-reliance and equality- now they’re promising better orgasms?!? Laugh. Out. Loud.
Seriously, anti-women folks will stoop to anything to make women give up self-reliance and equality- now they’re promising better orgasms?!?
Odd, isn’t it, how Marie hasn’t provided the evidence we requested for this claim. In the interest of fairness, I’ll go ahead and make an unproved assertion: When women are respected and have entered an equal relationship, rather than a marriage of subservience and dominance, they are free of anxiety and feelings of lower self-worth, which can lead to deeper and more satisfying orgasms. There…balance in the Force has been restored.
Remember, assertions without evidence may be dismissed without argument.
I come from a country where women’s rights are for the large part only on paper, where, culturally, women are suppressed, where ‘modernity’ usually means that women have to slave two shifts - at home and at the office, where female infanticide is very common and female education far less common.
I’m amazed that people who are far more luckier can’t appreciate the freedoms they have - who seem to want nothing more than to give up these rights and return to the dark ages.
Really, how incredibly stupid can you get?
Women, girls today have a few more chances in the workforce, but there is a long way to go. There’s another way to damage women, girls as well as unfair pay…the “sleep around” hookup culture.
Along with employers who STILL do not pay women fairly, what about the males (teens, adults) who sleep around with girls, women, and then leave the females to deal with the pregnancy?
Planned Parenthood and many other sites show that POVERTY is a big problem for many pregnant women, girls. And thus they are FORCED into a horrible choice: The child with poverty or a more adequate income (or college) with no child because they abort it.
Women, girls today are treated as disposable toys…and some men make them feel ashamed if they ask the C word (Commitment).
So men, don’t rant against the straw man here (the eeeevil conservative faith person). How are YOU damaging women? OR are you a real man who raises the kids he’s created?
“When women are respected and have entered an equal relationship, rather than a marriage of subservience and dominance, they are free of anxiety and feelings of lower self-worth, which can lead to deeper and more satisfying orgasms.”
i do agree with you, JAlanBrown, except that you seem to be suggesting that only & ALL christian marriages are “a marriage of subservience and dominance.” if i have misread or misunderstood you, please feel free to correct.
Pay inequity has several well documented causes aside from gender itself. Women for some unknown reason, will sometimes take 6 or so years off from their careers. That means they won’t have as much experience as a male counterpart of the same age. Women are less likely to ask for raises than men. On the occasions when the do ask for a raise, they tend to ask for less than men. So if a husband and wife work in the same field and are otherwise equal, he might likely surpass her in pay. Not because of his third leg, but because he didn’t stop working to raise kids to school age and because he asked for more and bigger raises. That’s not his fault or the fault of the employer. That’s a matter of individual choices. There might be some bosses who are sexist in awarding salaries, but that’s why we invented lawsuits.