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The Christianity Today women's blog provides news and analysis from the perspective of evangelical women. We cover news stories and books related to international justice and evangelism, pregnancy and sexual ethics, marriage, parenting, and celibacy, pop culture, health and body image, raising girls, and women in the church and parachurch.

Her.meneutics is edited by associate editor Katelyn Beaty and online editor Sarah Pulliam Bailey.

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April 20, 2009

Re: Evangelical Women in Public Life

Katelyn Beaty

Alisa Harris, editor at Patrol magazine, responded to the question we posed last Thursday, "Where are all the evangelical women in public life?" by pointing to prevalent beliefs about women and spirituality. Here's her helpful analysis:

That's what's interesting -- women have more influence inside the church than outside it. Why is this? My guess is that the evangelical church accepts women in the role of spiritual counselors because of the lingering Victorian idea that women are gentler, more spiritual and just all around more naturally virtuous than men. They're good at Bible studies and exhorting people to live good lives. . . . But (so the idea goes) they should do it privately, not publicly since women's sphere is in the home. Not in the pulpit and not in the public square. Also (so they say) women deal with emotions and not reason. It's a way of putting women on a pedestal but also limiting their role, their development, and especially men's development, too.

Harris then links to the recently published Pew Forum survey about women and spirituality, where women self-report that they are more likely than men to pray daily, have "absolutely certain belief in God or a universal spirit," say that religion is "very important" in daily life, have "absolutely certain belief in a personal God," and attend church regularly.

My only quibble with applying the Pew study to explain the prevalence of women leaders inside the church (but not outside of it) is that the study is trying to measure generalized spiritual beliefs, not distinctly Christian teachings. Many female Bible teachers in the church are hardly "lite" or "soft" in their tone, but can pack as much of a punch in their biblical exegesis as the next Reformed pastor. Anne Graham Lotz and Beth Moore come to mind as women who take doctrinal precision seriously. They stand as refreshingly counter-intuitive examples of those who are equally concerned with loving the Lord with their minds as they are with their hearts.

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Posted by Katelyn Beaty on April 20, 2009 2:08 PM

Comments

Some more authors I like are Edith Schaeffer, Elisabeth Elliot, Joni Erickson Tada, and Jan Karon.

Posted By: Christy | April 20, 2009 10:00 PM

I wonder if we're not trying to equate differing terms/categories: "influential" vs. "recognized" perhaps. All the men in the previous post (Rick Warren, Tim Keller, Jim Wallis, James Dobson and Chuck Colson, etc.) are influential, but they're also recognized. There are a lot of extremely influential evangelical women (and probably men as well) in business, Hollywood, the media, etc, who are not recognized.
To ask why more influential women aren't recognized would be an entirely different question. :-)

Posted By: j a n | April 20, 2009 10:18 PM

This is a very interesting line of thinking. We are discussing this in the Sunday School Class I am teaching Sunday. We have another church family being transitioned into our church and we need all the good advice we can get from Biblical Scholars and devoted Christian Women.

Posted By: Ruby Brown | April 22, 2009 4:34 PM

Interesting question. And, I'll buy that some of the dearth of Evangelical women in public life might be caused by the implicit or explicit endorsement of Victorian (or even older) ideals.

I think, however, that there's an even simpler and more obvious explanation: involvement in public life requires more than does involvement in church. Most churches accept volunteer service from their members without much quibbling over background, credentials, and funding. But, even running for local office requires some resources. And, even running for local office subjects a person to scrutiny of their life that teaching a Sunday School class or facilitating a Bible Study or participating in regular, personal devotions doesn't.

Posted By: LawGirl | April 22, 2009 6:18 PM

Perhaps it is because the "Evangelicals" separate all things "woman" from the mainstream instead of integrating women teachers, preachers, and pastors into their churches (with a few exceptions). Maybe if believers themselves recognized and acknowleged the strength of contributions of the enormously gifted women among them, "the public" would follow suit.

Posted By: Robyn | April 23, 2009 10:23 AM

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