Women's History

 

Women have always made a tremendous difference everywhere.  Women’s History month 2022 seeks to highlight that positive change, and seems to be experiencing varying events marking women’s evolution in rights and equality. For a few examples:

Hungary has elected a woman as president, a landmark for any nation.

In sports a different landmark is being laid, as a transgender woman has dominated women’s NCAA swimming competitions as a biological male competing against biological females. Professor Carl Trueman comments in First Things:

“… [R]eal women’s rights are neglected and damaged. Trans ideology robs women of their history and takes male privilege to a whole new level—all in the name of women’s rights. Like the idea that pornography liberates women, transgender theory is arguably one of the most effective male confidence tricks in recent history: Nothing that women can lay claim to as women is now off-limits for men.”

The United States Senate is about to confirm a female Justice of the Supreme Court who cannot define “woman, because she is not a biologist.”  Her recognition that it takes a biologist to define "woman" seems to point to the fact that sex is a biological issue rather than one based on feelings or identify.

Yet, the federal government website devoted to Women’s History Month details various congressional and presidential actions throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s that led to our current Women’s History Month. Since 1995, every sitting president has made an annual proclamation of March as Women’s History Month. The 2022 theme is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.”

Regent University’s Academic leader, Dr. William Hathaway writes:

“We live during a time where providing healing and hope meets a particularly urgent need.  The impact of Christian women in history has been a remarkable part of the Kingdom story. In antiquity, Christianity arose in places where women often had marginalized status and only limited personal rights. Jerome, the Latin translator of what became the standard Bible in the West for centuries, dedicated his translation to women. After receiving criticism for this he replied, “These people do not know that while Barack trembled, Deborah saved Israel, that Esther delivered from peril the children of God…. Is it not to women that our Lord appeared after His Resurrection? Yes, and the men could then blush for not having sought what the women had found… Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created “male and female” humanity and that they are His image bearers. This month, let us reflect on the legacy and example of the women image bearers of the Creator of us all.”

 

The revolutionary treatment of women began with the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ.  To understand this concept and how Christ’s treatment of women changed both law and culture download for free A Christian Perspective on Gender Equality, 15 Duke J. Gender L. & Pol’y 339 (2008).

 

Women throughout history have made a positive difference in the lives of others, and much of that is because of their faith in Him.  Women will continue to do so regardless of law and culture  - to change the world for the better.