The dilemma of evangelical feminists

"If you would just submit to your husband, God would take away your desire for a Ph.D."

"I don't see how any self-respecting woman could associate with such a repressive, patriarchal religious subculture."

Patricia Hill Collins, a sociologist whom I have mentioned before, translated her experience as a black woman into a helpful concept called "intersectionality:"

black women are uniquely situated in that they stand at the focal point where two exceptionally powerful and prevalent systems of oppression come together: race and gender. Being able to understand this position as something [Collins] calls “intersectionality” opens up the possibility of seeing and understanding many more spaces of cross-cutting interests. (Source)

Although I certainly don't think (mostly white) evangelical women experience the same level of oppression as black women, I find Collins' intersectionality useful in negotiating my identity as a feminist Christian who has remained within evangelicalism.  

Anna Blanch at Goannatree linked to a Christan Century article by Diana Butler Bass, from which I pulled the first two quotes above.  Although the article, Between two worlds: evangelical, female --and a scholar, is almost twenty years old, it still applies today to the intersection between evangelicalism and feminism. 

An evangelical woman with a Ph.D. in religion, Bass shares her struggle in navigating the academic world, which at times is not welcoming to evangelicals, and the evangelical world, which at times is not welcoming to women academics.  The intersection between the bias experienced by evangelical scholars and by women within evangelicalism results in a life on the boundary. 

Bass writes she is a committed feminist evangelical who desires to make "women's voices heard from the history of Christianity and in theology, speaking against the ways that the orthodox Christian tradition (which I deeply love) has oppressed my own gender," "despite the probability of being shot at from both sides" (232).

Bass' remark about being shot at from both sides applies to many evangelical women, not just those in academic theology.  Rachel Held Evans unintentionally demonstrated the difficulty in navigating between evangelicalism and feminism in a recent blog post, "13 Things that Make Me a Lousy Feminist."  Evans incisively critiques the notion of biblical womanhood, so as a result, some conservative evangelicals have dubbed her a “dangerous feminist.”  

Evans intended to point out she is not what many view as a traditional feminist: she honors homemaking as a profession and is pro-life.  However, feminists critiqued her post for furthering stereotypical ideas about feminism (feminists don't in fact hate men or disparage homemaking, etc.).  While Evans' post sparked an excellent, clarifying discussion of the nature of feminism today, her original post still stands as an illustration of the instant labelling that occurs when a woman points out evangelicalism's problematic beliefs about gender roles.

It seems many an evangelical woman has to trot out her evangelical credentials and assure others she isn't a radical godless liberal when she points out women's silencing in the church.  It's discouraging that women who would otherwise be evangelical theologically are marginalized by their faith tradition if they bring up women's issues.  The choices left for those who are evangelical theologically and also feminist are either to leave evangelicalism altogether or navigate the trickiness of a life on the boundary.

Bass' article and Evans' post reminded me of Nicola Hoggard Creegan and Christine D. Pohl's 2005 book, Living on the Boundaries: Evangelical Women, Feminism, and the Theological Academy.  In Chapter 1, Creegan and Pohl point out that 1 Peter 2:11 describes Christians as aliens and exiles in the world, and throughout the Bible, Christians are called to view themselves as strangers and sojourners.  

Our identity as Christians is wrapped up in being not quite sure where our "home" is.  For evangelical women specifically, "[l]ife on the boundary provides the kind of critical distance and alternative perspective that challenges assumptions and practices, institutional arrangements and authority structures." (13).

Already knowing what it's like to live on the boundary and not feel quite at home, evangelical women can bring a valuable critique to our faith tradition, just as Collins notes that black women are uniquely situated due to their intersectionality.  

Rather than dismissing evangelical women as radical feminists, perhaps our sisters and brothers could recognize these critiques not as an imposition of radical feminism, but as a prophetic word coming from aliens and sojourners, living between two worlds.  And my hope is that we evangelical feminists can turn our dilemma into a recognition of other groups who struggle along that boundary-line...

Comments

[www.somuchshoutingsomuchlaughter.com]

i resonate with this on many levels and appreciate your point about navigating the tension as a stranger/alien. christianity should never be an "insiders game" and the perspective of the marginalized is always critical--especially since that's where Christ repeatedly cast his lot. yes to having a prophetic role!

we need to listen and let people define their own terms if we're going to have a conversation that goes anywhere. it's foolish and unhelpful for the church to attempt to understand feminism by however fox news disparages it.

eugene cho had a guest post about gender, church, and scholarship that i think you'd appreciate. it was just last week.

[Natalie]

I'm glad the stranger/alien idea resonated with you because I want to explore it a little more, applying it to people of color and LGBTQ community.

Was Eugene Cho's post this one? http://eugenecho.com/2011/11/28/gender-church-and-the-art-of-alternate-endings/

As I was writing this post, I was racking my brains trying to think of where on earth I had read a story of a woman who felt marginalized even in egalitarian evangelical circles! So thanks for bringing that up!

[WritingJoy]

I have found myself thinking the same things, Natalie. That this must be what it's like be on the fringe of things, and that maybe it's exactly where I should be. The unsettled, never feeling at home, awkward and uncomfortable state of being doesn't seem to have an end in sight.