What comes to your mind when you hear the word feminist? For some, they may think of women’s suffrage, the wage gap, gender equality, and anti-rape culture. Others may think of radicalism, abortion access, angry leftist women, and even unapologetically anti-men movements.
Feminism is so multi-faceted it can barely be referred to as a unified movement. There are radical feminists, liberal feminists, Marxist feminists, pro-life feminists, cultural feminists, post-modern feminists, eco-feminists, the list goes on. The question I’m presenting is as follows:
Are there Christian feminists? Is it an inherent contradiction to call oneself a feminist and a Christian? Some would heartily agree, claiming that feminism is inherently anti-Biblical, while others would take the exact opposite opinion, that feminism represents Biblical values in socio-cultural practice.
To begin, what is feminism in its most basic form? Despite all the different sub movements within feminism, what is the core value that every feminist would say defines their movement? To paraphrase from Britannica, feminism is “the belief in men and women’s political, social, and economic equality. All are entitled to equal rights under these categories and should not be discriminated against based on gender.” The varying sub-groups within feminism stem from the belief in the equality of men and women; they just differ in their theories on how to achieve this gender equality.
While Christians may disagree with some sub-groups of feminism, it is ignorant to dismiss feminism as an ideology entirely. For example, Christians are united in their belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, yet many disagree on particulars (such as baptism, free will, or church government). Some may even call themselves Christians (i.e., Mormons), while other Christians believe they cannot accurately subscribe to that title. Feminism is very similar in that it is vastly multi-faceted, and not all feminists will agree on the terms one must meet to call themselves a feminist.
Instead of analyzing each sub-movement of feminism Biblically, let’s return to the universal definition that nearly all feminists will subscribe to — the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. If we read the Gospels at face value, the one thing that sticks out is Jesus’ love for His people — men and women. He treats the women around Him as equals with men. He honors them, challenges them, teaches them, and includes them.
This conflicted with the cultural expectations of the time. Scripture affirms and celebrates women when women were virtually silent or invisible in literature. Women were an essential part of the Gospel. In John chapter four, Jesus first publicly revealed himself as the Messiah to a woman, a Samaritan at the well, leading a life of sexual sin. This woman's is the longest personal conversation with Jesus ever recorded in Scripture. She was the first to deliver the news of the coming of Christ to the Samaritans; she evangelized — she preached the testimony of Jesus — and brought people to salvation because of it.
Even though Roman authority did not consider the testimony of a woman sufficient proof in court, Mary Magdalene served as the first witness of the resurrected Christ and the first preacher of the Resurrection (John 20:11-18). Jesus consistently employs women in his ministry and elevates them to equality under Him. He affirms the Imago Dei of women in His ministry. As Paul says in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Even though feminism gained popularity due to “secular” work and scholarship, we must remember God’s common grace through General Revelation. Every good thing comes from God, the source of all truth, so Christians can still celebrate the fruits of feminism (such as gaining status for women as “persons” under the law, voting, owning property, defending themselves against rape, and sexual exploitation, protesting the dowry system and child brides, and
campaigning for wage equality).
As Canadian theologian Dr. John D. Stackhouse Jr. put it, “Christian feminists can celebrate any sort of feminism that brings more justice and human flourishing to the world, no matter who is bringing it, since we recognize the hand of God in all that is good.”
So, let’s return to our original question: can a Christian also call themself a feminist? Simply, yes. In the most basic sense, being a feminist is to affirm the Imago Dei of women and that their value is not less than or more than men, and campaign for this equality in one’s cultural and social position.
Jonathan Edwards said, “The task of every generation is to discover in which direction the Sovereign Redeemer is moving, then move in that direction.” Could feminism, despite its corruption from the effects of the fall, perhaps be a movement in which we are seeing God’s hand?
To paraphrase Sarah Bessey in her book Jesus Feminist, one does not need to identify as a feminist to participate in God’s redemptive movement for the world’s women. But as long as I know that women, including those outside my country, are denied wage equality, political freedom, that women are being abused and raped; as long as I know girls are being denied life itself through selective abortion, abandonment, and abuse; as long as brave little girls in Afghanistan are attacked with acid for the crime of going to school, and until the societal expectation of Christians is to be synonymous with supporting policies and movements doing something about these things, you can also call me a feminist.