Feminism, Nursing Classes, and Jesus

I've found myself thinking a lot about feminism over the last week or so.  I suppose it's a bit of an inevitable topic when you're enrolled in a program that has a student body that is something like 90% female.  Particularly when you have to sit through lectures that emphasize that the most important part of nursing is not the care we give to our patients, but the specific scientific education and skills that we bring to the table.

Can I whisper a secret to you?

I don't identify myself as a feminist.

Whew.  I'm glad I got that off my chest.  Are you still with me? Still breathing?  Not going to attack me?

Early in the days of my first university degree, I shared that secret with a classmate as we rode the bus together.  She attacked me.  "Well then why are you in university?"

"Excuse me?"

"You wouldn't be able to get a higher education if it wasn't for feminism!"

Sigh.

As someone who is currently embarking on the journey to a second university degree and a professional designation, let me say that I'm thankful for those who blazed the way for me to participate in educational opportunities.  As someone who is headed into a profession that has been predominantly the field of women for the last couple of centuries, I'm grateful for the women who paved the way and established themselves as respected leaders in the field.

But I still don't identify as a feminist.

I texted a friend during a particularly feminist in slant class last week, and commented, "I'm all for equality of men and women, but I sure don't subscribe to the view that women are better, and I don't think that women should rule the world."

We laughed, since she is trained in a female dominated profession, but currently working in a male dominated profession, and just that morning had completed a task that she would have been more than happy to pass off to a man.

Can I tell you another secret?

I think men and women are different, and that there are things that women generally do better than men, and things that men generally do better than women.

I'm not actually all that into traditional gender roles. And I'm not really going to talk about them in this post.

What I actually wanted to talk about is the fact that I feel like a failure, sometimes, as a woman, by not identifying with feminism.  By not picking the female candidate for a job or in an election, just because she's a woman.  For believing that things like jobs and elections need to be about skills, giftings, education and qualifications, and not about gender.

The class that stirred this quagmire within me carried on, and the professor mentioned several times that the thing responsible for this incredible subjugation of women is "European Christianity".

Sigh.

My already tumultuous insides began to ache in earnest.  As a historian, I can tell you that this is an unbalanced opinion.  That yes, at times Christianity has been responsible for the subjugation of women, but that it has also empowered women throughout history in incredible ways.  And more than that, the Jesus I've fallen more and more in love with over the last couple years, well, he loved and empowered women.

I found myself thinking again of a poem titled "The Woman's Creed" written in 1978 by Rachel Conrad Wahlberg that I've shared here before.  As I pondered feminism, nursing classes and Jesus this week, I felt it worth reposting Walhberg's poem, because it so beautifully reflects the Jesus I've come to know, and his heart towards me as a woman.


I believe in God
who created woman and man in God's own image
who created the world
and gave both sexes
the care of the earth.

I believe in Jesus
child of God
chosen of God
born of the woman Mary
who listened to women and liked them
who stayed in their homes
who discussed the Kingdom with them
who was followed and financed
by women disciples.

I believe in Jesus
who discussed theology with a woman at a well
and first confided in her
his messiahship
who motivated her to go and tell
her great news to the city.

I believe in Jesus who received anointing
from a woman at Simon's house
who rebuked the men guests who scorned her
I believe in Jesus
who said this woman will be remembered
for what she did -
minister to Jesus.

I believe in Jesus
who acted boldly
to reject the blood taboo
of ancient societies
by healing the audacious woman who touched him.

I believe in Jesus who healed a woman
on the sabbath
and made her straight
because she was
a human being.

I believe in Jesus
who spoke of God
as a woman seeking the lost coin
as a woman who swept
seeking the lost.

I believe in Jesus
who thought of pregnancy and birth
with reverence
not as punishment - but
as wrenching event
a metaphor for transformation
born again
anguish-into-joy.

I believe in Jesus
who spoke of himself
as a mother hen
who would gather her chicks
under her wings.

I believe in Jesus who appeared
first to Mary Magdalene
who sent her with the bursting message
GO AND TELL...

I believe in the wholeness
of the Savior
in whom there is neither
Jew nor Greek
slave nor free
male nor female
for we are all one
in salvation.

I believe in the Holy Spirit
as she moves over the waters
of creation
and over the earth.

I believe in the Holy Spirit
as she yearns within us
to pray for those things
too deep for words.

I believe in the Holy Spirit
the woman spirit of God*
who like a hen
created us
and gave us birth
and covers us
with her wings.

*the Hebrew word for Spirit is feminine