gender roles and gender distinctions: women in leadership part 2

I don’t enjoy confrontation but sometimes it seems I’m really good at it, or invite it in certain situations. One of these moments took place while having lunch at a conference. I ended up sitting at a table with a bunch of young guys that I’d never met before. They were already in a deep discussion about complimentarianism and egalitarianism. One of these guys was adamant that in a marriage there were some things that only men could do and other things designed for women. He told me that men and women were made differently, and so clearly they weren’t allowed to have the same jobs. Men were to provide for the family, to lead and make important decisions while women were to look after the children, make food for the family and to submit to the husband in the important decisions. He told me this was the biblical view.

But I just couldn’t understand the logic jump. Sure, men and women are clearly different, physically and psychologically. I don’t disagree with that. In fact I’m into it, because I don’t find the male body particularly attractive. But how do you go from observing these differences to asserting that there are clear and distinctive gender roles? I asked my new friend this, and he couldn’t answer, but he got so mad that he started shaking, all the while continuing to make these assertions. Really interesting stuff.

It is quite a common argument, though, that it is clear from the way men and women are made that there are self-evident gender roles.

I’ve found that a lot of the theology behind this thinking is based on the creation story, the foundational narrative of the bible where the scene is set. Eve has received a bit of a slap on the wrist by lots of people throughout the ages and her actions have been used to justify thinking that says that women can’t be trusted to lead well. Eve has been seen as the Devil’s gateway, the one who was easily deceived and has shown us just how easily women can be turned astray. I’ve heard a few people tell me that women are too driven by their emotions and don’t reason as well as men. This sounds more like the thinking of the ancient Greeks than Jesus to me. The reality is that this just doesn’t work out in the real world. There are many great examples of women in leadership and heaps of examples of men that have led badly. General statements like this simply don’t work.

Those that look to the creation story as an archetypal example for the way that the sexes work forget a few basic details. Firstly, Eve wasn’t around when the commandment about the fruit was given! It looks like her deceit is actually the fault of Adam who doesn’t seem to have passed this important information on. In Romans, Paul says that sin entered the world through Adam, not Eve. And if Adam is supposed to be the leader, why is he following Eve? Naughty Adam. If you continue to look closely you might also see that only Adam was expelled from the garden. Eve chose to follow Adam. It sounds like she was actually pretty cool. The text seems to further indicate that Eve is actually not too bad: it is her seed that will eventually crush the serpent’s head, not Adam’s.

Why is this important? What I’m trying to get at, is that the text that sets the foundation for what human beings are and how they are to live seems to look less favourably on Adam than it does Eve. It seems like Adam is presented as the one who leads badly. Most importantly though, in no place is it prescriptive for gender roles. Childbirth seems to be the only distinctive.

So don’t let anyone come at you with an argument that says “It is just the way things are, men are made to lead women”. These people haven’t read their bibles closely enough, or maybe they have read other things into these stories. They don’t seem to have listened to and looked at the life of Jesus. Jesus is who we will look at next time.

Jesus likes the ladies. It’s good.