If the Bible isn't just for men, then feminism isn't just for womenJoanna Callender - 8 Mar 2016

“It doesn’t make sense that one sex thrives while the other suffers...” 

For most of us, being a girl or a boy has had a negligible impact on our lives to date. I distinctly remember as a child being thankful that I wasn’t a “smelly, football-playing” boy. For me, being a girl has been perfectly pleasant. 

But my experience isn’t true for every member of the female population.  

“It is not good that the man should be alone” 

Genesis 2:18 

At the beginning of the Bible there’s an incredible, repeated line throughout the whole creation process: 

“God saw that it was good”. 

Things are going just as they should; God decrees that it is good. Trees, fish, day and night - all good.

But when it comes to creating humans, man on his own isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. It is not good. God’s ideal isn’t just man, but man and woman working together to look after the world God has just created. In the beginning, everything on Earth is entrusted to both sexes. 

So - women are necessary for God’s creation plan. Fundamental, in fact. Only when men and women exist together, does God look at everything he has made and proclaim it is very good.

Yet by the time of Jesus, even the idea of a woman sitting at his feet to learn was deemed incredibly inappropriate. And throughout history there are numerous examples where being a woman, not a man, has caused limitations and restrictions to education, freedom of speech and quality of life.

And this still happens today.

But if God originally created man and woman to work together, it doesn’t make sense that one sex thrives while the other suffers.

Today, women are still paid less than men for doing the same job. Today, girls are still prevented from going to school, simply because they are not boys. Today, only 19% of politicians worldwide - whose role is to represent all of the people in their country - are women.*

Current estimates predict that it will take over 100 years to achieve gender equality if we continue at our current pace. That’s over a century for females all over the world to have the same basic rights as males. So in 2016, International Women’s day wants to strive faster towards gender equality. 

“Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Isaiah 1:17

The Bible speaks passionately about fighting for justice: we are commanded to stand up for the poor, oppressed and marginalised. Even though many of us live in countries which feel pretty equal; in so many places it is women who are poorest, most oppressed and most marginalised.

As Christians, our role this International Women’s Day is to stand up for women’s rights.

It doesn’t matter whether we’re male or female: this is a role for all of us. If the Bible's story isn't just about men, then feminism isn't just for women. We can pray. We can pledge. We can act.

This International Women’s Day, let’s celebrate everything that God wants women to be; and take action to fight for women limited from being everything they could be. 

*http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/report-highlights/