Christian University Students’ Attitudes to Gender: Constructing Everyday Theologies in a Post-Feminist Climate
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Whilst the men mobilized Islam in their narratives of providers, modesty and relationships to legitimate their current dominance among the British Muslim community, the women used the same themes to challenge conventional understandings of their roles, in order to acquire greater status for themselves.
Tensions were evident as participants attempted to valorize religious and secular scripts in their rationalizations. In their attempts to position themselves as gender-equal subjects where gender equality itself was contentious, the participants engaged with both secular and religious norms that were at times mutually-reinforcing, yet competing at other times. They neither uncritically subjected themselves to, nor completely rejected, religious norms and traditions. Rather, they utilized religion as a “cultural resource” (Beckford 2001)—as opposed to a set of non-negotiable diktats—alongside secular norms in finding an ontological anchor. This leads to outcomes that were negotiated and contingent.
2. Methods
3. Interview Findings: How Faith Influences Attitudes to Gender4
3.1. The Individualized Approach: “Faith Has Little Influence on My Approach to Gender”
For Martha (Chester), societal views favoring gender equality overrode Bible passages that, literally interpreted, expressed the opposite:I was having this discussion last night at my boyfriend’s house, … he was like, “But it says in [the New Testament book of] Timothy that they shouldn’t have authority, so … I’m ok with them preaching, but I don’t know if they should be, like, in charge of the church.” And I’m like, “Well my Godmother’s a Minister, so I’m going to have to disagree there.” Because I just think that’s context. I really don’t think that there’s any reason women should do anything less than men. I mean I’m extremely biased; I’m female and my mum’s a local preacher. I find it really strange to think anyone thinks different.
In both examples, traditionalist interpretations of Bible verses were brought into dialogue with society and personal experience, and rejected.I can remember thinking [about] a passage in one of Paul’s letters and coming down to my mum afterwards and saying, “Oh he’s saying how women should obey their husband and they’re considered less [than] … men”, and that quite upset me—I really strongly disagreed with that and she was just saying, “Well, you’ve got to think of the time it was written in and that was the social view, so it can’t be applied today.”
This apparent individualism was not exactly ideological, more of a general acceptance that others may do as they wish as long as they do not encroach upon others’ choices. It often accompanied phrases like “I don’t have a problem with X”, or “it doesn’t bother me if Y”. For instance, Grace (Leeds) complained about having to fill in equality monitoring surveys at university and criticized feminism for sometimes being “extreme”:We [Adrian and his friends] had this conversation as well. Like homosexuality and if they should be allowed to marry and then feminism and stuff … Me personally, I would say everyone should do what they think will make them happy.
I’m applying to be the school rep for the department and there’s a questionnaire in the back of the rep application that asks me what my sexuality is, and I’m like, “Why do you need to know this?”… I think people make too much of a big deal about things like that. They’re so worried that they’re not being equal to people that they’re almost being unequal to the people who aren’t gay and I’m like … I don’t really care. I would say it’s not an issue for me if someone is gay, if they’re not married … I don’t care. I’m not like evangelistic in that way … it doesn’t bother me.
Tori’s response is interesting—she perceives herself as rejecting the extremes of feminist theology and secular radical feminism on one side, and an unchosen (middle-class) gender traditionalism on the other hand. The desire to moderate between different viewpoints and present a middle-range view recurred throughout the interviews. This position on feminism can be characterized as a form of “post-feminism”, in other words, of the simultaneous support for feminist ideas alongside a nostalgia for the modern (non-feminist) gender order. This is a common position amongst young women in the early twenty-first century UK, who tend to reject feminist identity for themselves, while nevertheless taking on some of feminism’s ideas (Aronson 2003; Scharff 2012). In Tori’s view, this post-feminist view of gender appears to function as a kind of “cultural common sense”, a middle-way between two unreasonable extremes.I’m a feminist; I’m not going to deny that, but not a feminist in that I think that women need to be better than men … I don’t think as women we need to say, “Oh because we were oppressed, therefore we need to oppress the men”, and I think that’s why I’m not part of the Feminist Society here, because it’s just men-bashing … I’m a feminist in that I feel … that women need to be as equal as men and that you shouldn’t be looked down on, and I learnt that I’m a strong woman and I would never, ever dream of like saying, “Oh well I’ll just get a rich husband and I’ll just stay at home”, but that’s because my mother never stayed at home. But I think there should be that choice there as well. One of my best friends studies at Cambridge, and all she wants to do really is bring up a family … she feels sometimes that she’s criticized by society for wanting to do that. I think there should be the choice there.
Men and women are equal. I do not think that one is more important or higher than others. But I don’t think that saying things like the guy should protect the woman rather than the woman protecting the man—I don’t think of that as sexist because men and women are different. Scientifically, men are normally stronger than women and that’s just the way it is. And women are normally more emotional, and I don’t think that it’s sexist to say that … I think that the people that go around who are really strong feminists and say “Oh, no, who says that they’re stronger and who says that they should protect?” I think it’s naïve. Because I just think we need to accept that we are different, but that our differences are actually important and that we’re still equal in that.
I believe that we were all made in the image of God, so therefore we’re all equal; but … I don’t think that means that we have the same skill set … Like men, for example, are really much better suited usually to physical tasks—like they’re much stronger, they’re much faster; so, to me, it is a bit silly to … make a woman do that job. If she wants to do that job and she can do it, then fair enough; but like there’s some jobs and some roles that are much better, like, done by one sex or another … I think we’re losing a bit of that in today’s society where we’ve gone for equal rights; but actually what we’ve ended up with is women trying to be more like men, and men becoming more and more feminine … I think it’s started to kind of meld … rather than actually really celebrating what we have that’s different between the sexes; and celebrating the fact that we are equal, but we are different.
To me, my faith is about everyone being equal but then it’s been in the news in recent years about a big ding dong about women becoming ordained. I just found it the most ridiculous argument. No one can argue that a woman can’t do the job of a man … We’re not talking about something that specifically requires male genitalia or anything like this … We’re talking about a job, about leading people in their faith and how can you possibly not do that as a woman? I just think that’s absurd because that goes against our faith. How can you have a faith about love and respect and then completely sideline fifty per cent of the population?
I think feminism has definitely changed. When it first began, I’m all for that because that’s just equal rights and part of human rights and voting. But now it’s gotten a bit over the top … and men are basically sometimes by those really righteous feminists just being persecuted. And I think on the scales, women are now quite high up so it’s quite bad because it went from persecuting against females to persecuting against males. There needs to be more of a middle ground.
3.2. The Egalitarian Approach: “Faith Makes My Approach to Gender More Egalitarian”
Going to church I was kind of brought up to accept people and this is possibly my mum and dad’s interpretation of Christian faith, just accept people as they are and don’t be too judgmental and I was always taught that that would be God’s role not mine.
Christianity itself is about equality between peoples, both women and men, and no matter where you’re from the message is the same, so it’s a good thing. So in that respect, it probably does have an influence but at the same time, you could say that society’s influenced me in that way as well because society is pushing gender equality. So if I was born forty years ago, it might not have been taught the same.
Even before I was a Christian I had quite strong views on [how] everyone should have equal opportunities, and now I’m still believing the same. It should be all about equal opportunities for people and women having the same opportunities as men … It’s one of those things where as part of my faith I think yeah, there should be equal opportunities, God made us equal, but also because it’s just sensible. It’s just logical.
I don’t think about that much, but yes, my faith influences gender in the sense that I look—as a female I look at males and females equally and, you know, it sounds very, like, Christian but they’re created in the image of God … I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist … I think it’s because I’m not really bothered about the whole gender thing … I wouldn’t take a module in feminist theology or anything like that, and I think if you are feminist, you know, you’ve got a reason to do that obviously, something behind that, maybe you’ve been oppressed by a man or something … But, personally, I’m not really for feminism but that’s not really from my faith, that’s just generally.
- Interviewer:
- Would you call yourself a feminist?
- Kristina:
- Yes, but not [one of] the militant ones … at university, it’s more in the sense that it’s not about equality, it’s more about women are better and men are all horrible. I don’t believe in that and I don’t believe every woman has to make a career. I think women should have the choice, just as men do in theory, and I don’t think one is better than the other.
Here again we see an urge towards affirming both sides of the argument, voiced as a qualified support for a kind of gender complementarianism, even after a thoroughgoing liberal position has apparently been expressed. This was also the only example of the Old Testament being cited in support of gender equality. Two students commented on the book of Leviticus, which has been used to condemn homosexuality, saying more widely that the Old Testament was written thousands of years ago and was not designed to be obeyed literally, and that Jesus’ words should take precedence. As Jessica (Durham) put it, “I just think it’s more about the spirit than the letter of the law.” Loving God and others is what Jesus called for, she asserted:My step-uncle [who trained for ministry in a conservative Baptist church] … once made a list of all the roles in church from cleaner to leader and drew a line where women stopped. And I thought for me that was really ridiculous, I couldn’t find any biblical evidence for that at all. I get quite passionate about it and I think that in the Bible, there’s women deacons and there’s Deborah who was a judge and I think it’s totally fine for women to be in leadership. And I think if God calls me to any role in the church, I’m not going to be like, “Oh, sorry God, I’m not allowed to do that, do you remember? You made me a woman.”… I think that women should be ready to lead just the same as men should be ready to lead a Sunday School or all the other roles that men traditionally don’t do in the church. I think through time as well, that belief and that doctrine in the church has been not consistent because it’s been fine for women to go and plant churches in Brazil and lead thousands of people to Jesus but you’re not allowed to do it in Britain. For me, that’s quite racist as well…. I think that you need both sexes in ministry, not just women and I think that generally women are better pastors and men are better visionaries … but I think there’s always exceptions.
Jessica explained that as Jesus stood up for outcasts, she felt that he would stand up for transgender people today. She had always supported gender equality, and having a feminist mother had shaped that:Jesus only gave us two commandments. He said, love your neighbor as yourself and love God. That pretty much covers everything. If you think about it, with the 10 commandments and things, every single one of them can be covered in that.
Her egalitarianism was shaped by the influences of a feminist mother, an “innate feeling about prejudice” and Jesus’s inspiration.I guess I’ve always had a sort of innate feeling about prejudice and things. My mum was quite a staunch feminist and she went to medical school at a time when they had a quota on women. Telling me about what life was like then for minorities and for women. It was shocking. People don’t realize how recent in history that is … To hear about this I think, well I need to take up the fight for the current thing which is currently LGBT rights. I’m not transgender myself, but they deserve rights too and I ought to campaign for that, that kind of thing. Jesus would always try and stand up for minorities … The story of the good Samaritan, that was a minority race that the Jews hated at the time, things like that. He was always on the side of the underdog and minorities who were apparently discriminated against for no real reason.
I think that a lot of stuff that is quoted in order to promote inequality in the Bible ignores the basic tenets of Jesus’ teachings which is the last word of God from the son of God and therefore should be given precedence over something written in Leviticus years and years and years ago … I find a lot of Christianity quite hypocritical because we do pick and choose…. I don’t think that because Jesus didn’t have female disciples that means we can’t have female vicars. I think [it] means that 2000 years ago female disciples wouldn’t have been much use because no one would listen to them. Also, 2000 years ago we had slavery, the Romans had a big empire and lots of other things, like they used to put people to death for crimes. We don’t do any of those things anymore. I think that Jesus never at any point said that women were less than men. Therefore I think that to use that as an excuse to promote inequality is wrong. The same with sexuality.
3.3. The Conservative Approach: “Faith Makes My Approach to Gender More Conservative”
My views are that men and women, they are equal in status but not in role. And so where I see society trying to equalize men and women in terms of role as well … it annoys me somewhat. But I can’t really get angry because I don’t think many people will have read the Bible and believe what I believe so …
- Interviewer:
- So what are those different roles?
- John:
- I think it’s a kind of a tension that I believe that the, you know, that man is a leader, but that doesn’t make him greater than the woman if you know what I mean? So in a kind of an ideal Christian setting, you’ve got your small family which is you and your immediate family and you’ve got your big family which is church family. And I suppose I believe in both settings … the man is there to lead and the woman is there to really bring a lot of support and help because, you know, the man obviously can’t do it by himself and—so I think that’s kind of a very broad statement of role which I think will probably, you know, get a lot of people a bit angry.
Karen (Durham) invoked the story of Adam and Eve to support her belief that men should lead and protect their wives, arguing that Eve’s origin in Adam’s rib reflects her role in supporting him and his in looking after her. The anatomical account becomes a metaphor for a deeply complementarian social model of gender relations.I think naturally women should concentrate more on the house … It’s just looking at the way we’re built as well as women, and how men are built, it just kind of shows itself where you’re meant to be. But that’s not to say if you’re both working five days a week, you’re cooking every day, it would be nice also for your husband to be mindful and maybe help with the dishes, helping each other out. I guess it’s all about balancing.
Students’ conservative approaches were framed within a “different but equal” understanding—they were quick to say that men and women are “equal” despite them needing to take different roles. Assertions of gender traditionalism were cloaked in egalitarian language, perhaps because students thought such views might be seen as socially unacceptable and that this may be a strategy to convey reasonableness and negotiate a middle ground. This was also the case in the responses of students who believed that marital “roles” did not need to be gendered, but thought that only men should lead churches.I’m conscious of wanting to relate to [my wife] as someone who is an equal so I very much love when we can do things together, when we’re enjoying things together, working together, you know there’s a terrific sense of togetherness that comes from that kind of view of equality. But then I also feel conscious of consciously adopting a particular role because of the way that it images [sic] something about the relationship between the persons of the Trinity … The man is supposed to love the woman as Christ loves the church, and be willing to lay himself down for her.
Ruby (Kent), a Protestant, began by saying that both faith and her political studies influenced her “a lot”. “I think there is an obvious difference between men and women and I don’t think men and women are equal and I don’t think they should be”, she said, but criticized discrimination against women in the workplace, stating that women can be good mothers and have good careers and should not be criticized. “But”, she said, “I don’t think that women should be Bishops.” Asked why, she replied:When it comes to the church, it’s pretty clear that the Bible teaches that leadership in the church is male, whether you’re talking about a teaching, preaching role or whether it’s like a minister or an elder.
Because God, Jesus chose all his disciples as men, because they were who were listened to at the time and I think that men are still listened to today, more than women and I think that God, Jesus had other roles for women. Like his mother and all the women that were around him, were really important to him and had important roles, but they weren’t his teachers and I think that at a high level, whether we like it or not, men are listened to more than women and I think that if that’s the most successful way, why should we change it?
- Interviewer:
- What if someone said, “Hey we believe that you should go forward and be a leader in the church?”
- Chloe:
- Well it depends what do they mean? Like become a nun or become a priest? Because a nun I could accept, but not a priest.
- Interviewer:
- How come?
- Chloe:
- Because I don’t think you can ignore 2000 years of church history. Like there’s never been women priests before really, it’s like married priests I can accept, because in the early churches, priests used to have to be married, or so I think I read that anyway somewhere.
4. Discussion
questions must be asked about the relocation of the religious and the restructuring of those patterns [of secularization] within postmodernizing situations. How exactly are fragments of belief re-woven into the lives of those for whom religious choice is central, and who seek the faith-means of coming to terms with contemporary realities?
Christian students’ views on gender and the Bible can be called “everyday theologies”. They negotiate with biblical material, even if sometimes by ignoring it or failing to try to understand it, and they work out how in their own individual, family and church contexts they might see their lives as connected to their religious identityEveryday theologies are not simply the outcome of extreme individualism, but rather are how individuals, as parts of communities and societies, come to make sense of their world and its sacred aspects. These theologies are formed in communities and can help people to experience religion as truthful and transcendent rather than as hollow human tradition … Although sociologists of religion tend to focus on how beliefs are altered by massive social structural changes [authors’ note: here we might refer to changes in gender roles], it is clear that people experience these changes in their everyday lives and must interpret them.
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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1 | All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Durham University. |
2 | More details of the methods used for the project are available in (Guest et al. 2013a) and (Guest et al. 2013b). |
3 | This was followed by the names of the six world religions claiming most adherents in the UK, in alphabetical order, preceded by “none”, with an “other” option accompanied by “please write in”. |
4 | Survey findings revealed strong support for gender equality: 80.3% agreed or strongly agreed that women should have the same opportunities as men to contribute to church leadership, while only 8.8% disagreed (the rest were unsure). The statement “Men are more naturally equipped to be leaders in society” revealed a stronger gender difference and less egalitarian attitudes, wherein 64.2% of Christian students disagreed (half of them strongly) with the statement. Males were more likely than females to agree or strongly agree with the statement (32.7% compared to 17.4%). See (Guest et al. 2013a) for discussion of the survey results. |
5 | This group is not discussed in this article because of its relatively small size, and because the dynamics and tensions evident in the students’ three main approaches, which will be discussed, were also present among this group. |
6 | All names are pseudonyms. |
7 | There were also some minor differences between the responses in the five universities, but as this was a small sample we should not draw conclusions from them. |
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Aune, K.; Guest, M. Christian University Students’ Attitudes to Gender: Constructing Everyday Theologies in a Post-Feminist Climate. Religions 2019, 10, 133. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020133
Aune K, Guest M. Christian University Students’ Attitudes to Gender: Constructing Everyday Theologies in a Post-Feminist Climate. Religions. 2019; 10(2):133. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020133
Chicago/Turabian StyleAune, Kristin, and Mathew Guest. 2019. "Christian University Students’ Attitudes to Gender: Constructing Everyday Theologies in a Post-Feminist Climate" Religions 10, no. 2: 133. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020133
APA StyleAune, K., & Guest, M. (2019). Christian University Students’ Attitudes to Gender: Constructing Everyday Theologies in a Post-Feminist Climate. Religions, 10(2), 133. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020133