Cheryl & ethnovet: Gender Equality: A View from Beyond the ‘Glass Ceiling’

First Published August 22, 2017 Research Article

Abstract

Marjorie Lewis draws on her own experience of breaking through the glass ceiling to become the first woman President of the United Theological College of the West Indies. Through this, she considers the theological and biblical perspectives on gender equality, internalized and unrecognized inequality, naming and exorcising abuse in institutional relationships and strategies to survive and thrive. At the heart is a rejection of the notion that all suffering is to be embraced unchallenged as part of the Christian experience and that it is the particular calling of women. This can lead to overwork, burn out and a lack of self care.

Keywords

Glass ceiling, Caribbean women, equality, abuse, Bible, suffering, self care

Introduction

Effective 1 August 2010, I was appointed President of the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) for a five year term. I was the first woman to be appointed to the post, and could therefore be seen as having breached the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ – that often unacknowledged barrier that has traditionally prevented women from occupying the highest positions in institutions, including the Church. This article seeks to highlight some of the issues and themes relevant to the matter of gender equality, which have emerged from my experience as a Caribbean woman and seem to have resonance with the stories of other leaders, female as well as male, in the Church, seminaries and tertiary institutions in the Caribbean and beyond. The Article will explore:

Theological and Biblical perspectives on gender equality
Internalized and Unrecognized Inequality
Naming and Exorcising Abuse in Institutional Relationships
Strategies to Survive and Thrive

The Bible as a Sacred Text for Christians is an important source of ideas about the nature and identity of God, human beings and relationships as well as themes such as meaning in life, suffering and hope.

Theological and Biblical Perspectives on Gender Equality

While it is true that the Bible, Christian theologians and culture have been among the sources that have been used to promote inequality between men and women, the interpretation of specific passages and the overall meaning of the Bible has been contested and contrasting arguments have been used to provide justification in making a case for gender equality as divinely sanctioned. I would like to highlight select Biblical and theological insights that point to gender equality some of which are developed in greater detail in other writings, for example, Righting Her-Story: Caribbean Women Encounter the Bible Story,² and by theologians of the Reformed Tradition in Created in God’s Image: From Hegemony to Partnership.³
Genesis chapter one indicates that male and female were made in the image of God, and Gal. 3.28 echoes the notion that there is equality not only among genders, but across other significant constructions of superiority and inferiority developed in human society. The Bible also suggests that humanity in all its expressions, shares the possibilities as well as the limitations of the human condition. Romans 3.23, for example, indicates that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The notion of sin, we are reminded by Stone and Duke, refers not only to situations and states in which individuals miss the mark, but also to the ways in which we individually and collectively bring harm to ourselves, to others and creation: ‘sin refers to specific behaviors, to the status or character of people, and to a single and pervasive problem (being at odds with God’s purposes)… The condition of all humanity is to be at odds with God’.⁴
Sin has to be understood as not only personal, and of one’s own volition but also collective – resulting in groups of people, communities, the world at large bearing the consequences of someone’s personal sin, of the sins of institutions and of society’s collective sin. Prejudice, discrimination, injustice and legislation that place people in subordinated categories based on race, gender, class and ability, are examples of sin. In spite of these situations which restrict potential and deny fullness of life, the Biblical witness also provides hope that salvation is available for all through Jesus the Christ. Examples of specific textual references are found in Jn 10.10, 11, which speak of Jesus the Christ coming because of God’s love to give life in its fullness in place of condemnation, and 1 Cor. 15.3 which refers to Christ dying for the sins of humanity, and according to the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day. The person of the Christ and the nature of the salvation he effected are matters of debate amongst scholars, especially with respect to those who belong to religions other than Christianity.⁵ While not delving into the details of that debate, I offer the view that as we continue to dialogue together, we will understand in greater depth this Jesus Christ Son of God and Saviour who is also our brother, example of a congruent human being and our companion on the road as we contemplate and discuss the things that are happening around us and to us. This Jesus had to work out his vocation in life – what God called him to do and who God called him to be.
An understanding of Vocation, it seems to me, is important as we wrestle with the ideal of gender equality. As Christians we are all called to be disciples of Jesus the Christ in a generic sense, and also to discern the specific task or series of tasks that God is calling us to, and the ways in which God is calling us to maturity. In the words of Stone and Duke: ‘the Christian vocation includes those actions that are undertaken jointly by the community of faith as a whole as well as those carried out by its members individually’.⁶
How are we to know, moment by moment, individually and collectively, what we are to do, why we are to do it, which course of action is the most appropriate of any given number of options? Stone and Duke argue that Christians throughout time have understood their vocation as both a gift for which there should be thankfulness as well as duty and obligation requiring responsibility: ‘From earliest times Christian communities have understood their calling to be at once a gift to be received with gratitude and a duty to be undertaken’.⁷
The matter of the obligation and duty of a Christian’s vocation bring us squarely to the matter of suffering. What type of suffering is appropriate as part of one’s vocation and what forms of suffering are to be rejected and opposed as contrary to God’s will and purpose? The Methodist tradition convenes in congregations at the beginning of each calendar year to affirm their vocation by participating in the Covenant Service ritual. The ritual includes the following prayer:

I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.⁸

While it is true that effort, discomfort and suffering are part of the experience of Jesus the Christ and to be anticipated by his disciples, there have, historically been demands placed on slaves, women and other subordinated or marginalized groups, to embrace suffering as a sign of being Christ-like. This pressure has not gone unchallenged as some women exegetes have made the distinction between suffering that is redemptive and purifying and suffering that is exploitative. The Women’s Bible Commentary in reflecting on Phil. 2. 1–18, for example, notes in part:

The exhortation to suffer like Christ in expectation of future salvation was frequently used to admonish Christian women and slaves to submit to abusive husbands or masters (e.g. 1 Peter 2: 18–3:6). Christians who believe that the present world will soon end often find the idea of a regard for suffering like Christ to be an excuse for failing to struggle against injustice in this world. They forget that the hymn starts not with the suffering Christ but with the Christ who is equal to God. The poor in Latin America who are told to suffer like Christ rather than struggle for freedom, or abused women whose ministers tell them to submit to husbands, are not in the position to copy the Christ of this hymn. Its challenge is addressed to persons of some status and power, just as Christ had the status of God. In order to preach a gospel that centers on a crucified person and that brings persecution in its wake, such people must empty themselves.⁹

This issue will be taken up below as some aspects of the challenges and suffering beyond the glass ceiling are explored in a later section of the article.
Are women called by God to suffer more than men, including by suppressing their gifts for leadership? An appropriate biblical template which rejects the notion of divinely sanctioned exclusion of women from leadership and presents a model of equality between men and women who partner in leadership for Ministry is that of Priscilla and Aquila working with Paul, seen for example in Acts 18. 1–4; 18–28. Priscilla works with her intimate partner/husband demonstrating equality in Christian commitment, in the role of breadwinner and as a teacher of sacred truth. She also works with their male colleague, Paul with whom she is not in an intimate relationship, but with whom there seems to be a relationship of mutual respect. The biblical evidence seems to suggest that Priscilla is a well-known female Christian leader. She and her husband were important missionaries in Corinth and Ephesus. In some cases Aquila is mentioned first, for example, Acts 18.2 and sometimes Priscilla is mentioned first, as in Acts 18.18, 26, thereby suggesting that theirs was a genuine partnership rather than a superior/subordinate relationship. There is a sense in the biblical text that both are very important to Paul’s missionary work and the couple is taken by Paul to Ephesus and left in charge of the missionary activities there. The description in Acts 18. 26 of Priscilla teaching Apollos ‘the Way of God’ seems to indicate that she exercised Ministry.

Internalized and Unrecognized Inequality

Marshalling biblical evidence to support gender equality and challenge glass ceilings in Church and Church organizations can go some way in convincing Christian women and men, but there are often deeper processes at work even among and within those who give intellectual support to gender equality. It may be true that there are men who are consciously disparaging of women and who on theological and cultural bases understand women as inferior and subordinate, but perhaps the greater number, may be unaware that their behaviours and attitudes are examples of internalized patriarchy, requiring more intentional work to be done as part of an on-going process of sanctification.
The notion that men should dominate other subordinate men, as well as women, children and the creation is one in which both women and men have been socialized. This notion of dominant male and subordinate other men, plus women, children and the creation, often finds unwitting expression in personal and professional relationships. Peggy McIntosh in an article entitled ‘White privilege’¹⁰ draws an interesting parallel between male privilege and white privilege. In both cases, she notes that there is an unwillingness by the dominant group to accept that they are privileged and an unwillingness to lose privilege while giving lipservice and withholding effort to improve the status of the subordinated group. McIntosh also noted that there are intersecting systems of ranking in societies, so that while it is the case that as a white woman she was in the subordinate gender group, she is simultaneously in the superior racial group. Women in the leadership of different religions who have broken through the ‘glass ceiling’ have been engaged in speaking of the joys and pains of their journey, notably in Righting Her-Story, edited by Sheeratton-Bisnauth and in the third of the 2016 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) series, Her Story, which featured interviews with women leaders in Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.¹¹
Within the Caribbean, I suggest that we have unfinished work in the quest for gender equity and achieving equality with other marginalized groups. While there will be almost universal agreement that racism is to be expunged, and sections of the Church will celebrate the role of their denominational ancestors in the movement for the abolition of slavery, anecdotal evidence suggests that some men do not exhibit the same degree of passion and consistent effort to ensure that the women in leadership within their respective denominations are treated with equal rights and justice. This is not, however, a universal phenomenon, and note must be taken of the work of individual men such as Revd Eron Henry whose book Reverend Mother¹² self-published through Amazon and containing a controversial ending – interrogates patriarchy in the Seminary and the Church. Other signs of the challenge to gender inequality in the Church include policy decisions, by denominations like the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands which undertook research to identify the true state of gender relations in the denomination.¹³ The objective of the research was to develop a gender policy and thereby ensure that a gender analysis is mainstreamed in the structures of the Church to achieve gender equality at a deeper level than merely allowing for the ordination of women.
As well as the need to work to achieve the internalization of gender equality in both women and men, there are also important developments in re-defining masculinity and working for partnership. One example of this effort at re-defining masculinity was presented during the 2013 Founders’ Week celebrations at the UTCWI, by Canon Gideon Byamugisha who in an article entitled, ‘HIV, AIDS and Masculinity’¹⁴ argued for the embracing of a new type of masculinity that is transformative, liberative and redemptive and a rejection of enslaving masculinities. He distinguished between the two types of masculinities in this way:

In the context of HIV and AIDS; there are two types of men’s masculinity:
1.0 HIV enslaving masculinities that steal life, rob life, destroy life and waste life and
2.0 HIV redemptive, liberative and transformative ones that create, protect, defend, enhance, sustain and transform life for the better.

One important feature of this new masculinity according to Byamugisha, is the ability of men to cry in the face of the suffering they or others inflict, using biblical role models like Nehemiah and Jesus. Byamugisha noted the following:

“Real men” do not remain indifferent either to the human pain, suffering and death around them, to the [pain, suffering and death] they have caused themselves and to the [pain, suffering and death] they can do something about. They stand up to be counted.
Nehemiah was moved with compassion and overcome with emotion about vulnerable [Israelites] to the point of crying and weeping. And so was Peter when he realized he had abandoned his friend and community leader (and made him more vulnerable) at the time he needed him most and Jesus, (the incarnate God) weeps first over the inevitable fate of Jerusalem and then over Lazarus’s untimely death.
These three men did not become prisoners to social norms and values around manhood. They broke free and freely expressed their emotions in a redemptive way.
So should we in the battle against the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
So should we in mourning the millions of people’s lives stolen in their prime.
So should we in grieving for our inactions and mis-actions.
So should we in mourning for the poor and vulnerable age groups, genders, races, and countries in empire who are unable to put into practice what they know is safe because they lack the skills, the services and the policy environments that would reduce SSDDIM[Stigma, Shame, Denial, Discrimination, Inaction and Mis-action], multiply SAVE [Safe(r) behaviours & practices; Access to treatment and nutrition; Voluntary, routine and sigma-free counseling and testing and Empowerment of children, youths, men, women, families, communities and nations most vulnerable to, most at-risk of and most affected by HIV] and enable them to do easily, routinely and sustainably.

Naming and Exorcising Abuse In Institutional Relationships

Transformative and liberative definitions of masculinity have the potential to foster gender equality and to militate against abuse in institutional relationships. While matters of sexual misconduct and abuse by clergy have tended to grab the media spotlight, and have been documented in publications such as the book, When Pastors Prey: Overcoming Clergy Sexual Abuse of Women,¹⁵ attention also needs to be paid to the other forms of abuse that occur in institutional relationships, notably by male leaders in the Church. This abuse can occur in relation to subordinate women and men in the Clergy and laity, and to children. Pastoral Theologian Philip Culbertson, identified at least five other broad categories of abuse:

Physical: physical injury, use of force, e.g. beating or failure to restrain a child in the face of danger.
Psychological: person or group injures another emotionally or cognitively, denies reality of another’s insights, perceptions and experiences leading to the destruction of a sense of selfhood.
Social: use superior position to bar participation of others in socially inferior position; take advantage of the pastoral office to manipulate, deceive and dominate.
Religious: denial of other person’s capacity to participate in construction of faith; use shaming and coercion in evangelism.
Institutional: existence of professional hierarchies that give some positions more authority and opportunities for professional and economic advancement; marginalization of those ministers whose viewpoints do not coincide with the perspective of the dominant group – in most cases these are women, LGBT and minorities who are disenfranchised.¹⁶

I would also include financial abuse, where funds are deliberately withheld and efforts made to curtail the exercise of the legitimate authority of the woman who has broken through the glass ceiling to discharge the duties of the office.
The above-mentioned forms of abuse are often intersecting with other systems of domination and subordination, for example autocratic leadership styles and entrenched organizational norms that resist needed change and the wider national cultural dynamics. Within the Jamaican culture the need for improved emotional intelligence, especially with respect to conflict management has been recognized as a goal within civil society and law enforcement. In addition to the forms of abuse that can be seen across a broad demographic, the matter of gender stereotyping often creates another layer where women are concerned, and notions of the need for women in leadership to conform to ideals of being ‘feminine’ and accommodating of sexualized and disrespectful interactions and comments that would not be expressions even thought of, much less directed to a male leader.

Strategies to Survive and Thrive

In a less than ideal world and Church where abuse and inequality can be found, women, including those who break through the glass ceiling can survive and thrive, even though the temptation may be present for women to over work and neglect self care. There are well-known signs that indicate the possibility of burn out, for example a feeling of having no energy, the presence of stress-related illnesses and an absence of a sense of overall satisfaction and joy – a deep sense of satisfaction despite the presence of pressure and challenges in the job. While the propensity for burn out is present for both male and female leaders, traditional expectations of the virtue of the sacrifice by women to their personal detriment has often been presented as an integral part of the definition of the God-fearing woman. Proverbs 31. 10–31 often held up as a model for women, paints a picture of a woman who works for the benefit of her husband, children, servants, entire household and the poor but never seems to even have time to sleep. Strategies recommended by Culbertson and others for the leaders in the Church to nurture wellness and avoid burn out become even more important for women and other traditionally subordinated groups who breach glass ceilings. These strategies include developing habits of rest and recreation, making friends with peers with whom systems of mutual accountability can be established, working at achieving congruence in personal and professional life, nurturing one’s spirituality, cultivating the interior life with Soul Friends/Spiritual Directors, as well as individual contemplation and corporate worship.
While self care is lauded, it is often the case that there is pressure on women who first break the glass ceiling in particular Denominations or Faith Based institutions to feel a tremendous weight of responsibility to ensure that their performance does not reinforce prejudice against other women who may follow them. The reality, however, is that all human beings will make mistakes and an important skill in surviving and thriving beyond the glass ceiling is the ability to accept that one will make mistakes, learn from them and not be paralyzed into inaction or give up because of the mistakes but to develop the skill and art of mastery of the appropriate responses to internal and external critical voices. There is, however, a deeper call to discernment to understand when it is that God is calling one to greater effort and stamina in the face of challenges and when it is that God is calling one to move in the direction of the next assignment.
A final opportunity is presented to move beyond surviving and thriving to the achievement of a place of creativity, aliveness and joy throughout the lifespan, and especially as one ages. One therapist suggests that women over 50 years of age who have integrated the learning from previous years can be described in this way:

Her attitude and spirit are like the fresh green of spring; she welcomes new growth and possibilities in herself and others. There is something solid about her being an adult whose life has borne fruit through cultivation and pruning, as well as tempering and work; she knows from experience that it takes commitment and love for budding possibilities in herself or in others to grow into reality. There is something about her passion for life that is like the juiciness of summer’s ripe fruit. Now at menopause, she enters a new phase and is alive to new possibilities.
[This] comes from having lived long enough to be deeply rooted in wholehearted involvements, of living a personally meaningful life, however unique, feminist or traditional it may appear to others. It has to do with knowing who we are inside and believing that what we are doing is a true reflection or expression of our genuine self.¹⁷

For Jean Shinoda Bolen quoted above, ageing is not something to fear, but to embrace. From my perspective, the integration of the sense of acceptance of one’s self, satisfaction with interpersonal relationships and one’s contribution to wider causes in the society outlined by the writer, achieves a greater level of completeness when experienced in the transcendent reality of a relationship with God. The journey beyond the glass ceiling is one which can be justified on the basis of biblical and theological evidence for gender equality. This journey also benefits from confronting internalized and unrecognized inequality; grows from the naming and exorcism of abuse in institutional relationships and from the intentional use of strategies to survive as well as thrive. For me as a woman who has exercised leadership of the Christian Church and its related institutions, the journey towards gender equality, viewed from beyond the glass ceiling, finds its fulfillment in more than individual effort and single lifespan but rather encompasses a sense of the presence of eternal meaning thus making it possible to respond to this experience of awe and wonder in daily acts of love and forgiveness.

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Cheryl & ethnovet

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Sunday 6 January 2019

Gender Equality: A View from Beyond the ‘Glass Ceiling’

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