A long while back, I posted on the necessity for committed Christians to be involved in the academic community. Now, I'd like -- as a way for me to begin thinking tentatively about such issues -- to address the necessity for Christian women to be active in an academic environment. This ties in nicely I think with some of the previous conversations about women and leadership, but it is in no way directly responding to the previous conversation, either.
I frequent a number of blogs by women professors and they all seem to try to balance career, tenure, academic marketability and family/children but all do so within a model of corporate ladder-climbing. This all makes sense because to get ahead in a "man's world" a woman has to follow the rules of a male-dominated society and this means for her she has to try to do it all: have a top-notch career and be a maternal superhero. But as many of us know, we can't have it all -- not least because trying to do so means total burnout and there's a disconnect between trying to "have it all" and our identity as Christians. Christ denied all. But we often try to "gain the whole world" and in the process, "lose our souls".
As I said in my previous musings on the topic it is vital that Christians inhabit every sphere of life, including the academy. For college campuses are training the next generation how to think and if Christians are not involved in this process, then we not only neglect engaging with the culture at large, but also fail to actually be salt and light; instead we ourselves tend to lack flavour (to keep the metaphor going) and hide out in a Christian subculture (shining the light on already-lit objects) without actually engaging in dialogue with those whose worldviews differ drastically from our own.
But what part do women play in all of this?
Some may ask, shouldn't women be working in the home rather than at a college? Shouldn't her efforts be focused on the family and church rather than on a life of the mind? Can't men be this 'salt and light', so why are women necessary?
Well, rather than addressing the need for demographics across the country and using an argument based on equality, let me start by suggesting that Christian women are needed in the academy as much as Christian men principally due to two reasons, the first theological and the second practical: women are made in the image of God and young women need role models.
Women as image-bearers:
If as Christians, we agree that all truth is God's truth, we need to begin by arguing our points from our own traditions, rather than co-opting secular logic (such as scholastic ladder-climbing and fulfiling gender/diversity quotas). (This is, of course, not to say that we don't engage with our friends who are not Christians on their own terms, though). Genesis 1:27 states, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Although men and women are created with differing levels of authority and differing roles, both equally partake as image-bearers, however faintly, of the godhead. Women, along with men, then reflect the image of God. Berkhof in his Systematic Theology writes, "the essence of man consists in this, that he is the image of God" and "The doctrine of the image of God in man is of the greatest importance for theology, for that image is the expression of that which is most distinctive in man and in his relation to God" (205, 206). He goes on to say that the image of God implies humanity's intellectual, moral and bodily characteristics. Thus woman (along with man) reflects God not only in her body but also in her intellect and moral sense.
Does this mean that we can only reflect our status as image-bearer in one way -- namely as working solely within the home? I don't think so. As one of my friends likes to say, North American Christians worship at the altar of 'family' more so than worshipping Jesus Christ. This isn't to say that being a wife and mother are not ways in which we reflect Christ, for often this is the primary way that we do live this out and one which Scripture advocates. But this is not the only way we may live this out. We are called to be Christ to the world, to the world of academics as well as the world of the home.
Young women need role models: There is a great blog called, Got me a college girl which advocates college training for all young Christian women because women as well as men are called to love God not only with their hearts but also with their minds. Young women seem to get a number of mixed messages that counteract this purpose of loving God with their hearts, souls, strength and minds. They are firstly taught that what matters is how they look: hence the number of 10-year-olds going around looking like they're 25 in mini skirts and knee-length boots. Secondly the evangelical crowd tends to focus a woman's worth on her status as wife and/or mother, just ask any single young woman in your church. This is why girls feel more complete when married and young wives feel like they fit in after child #1 is born.
But our worth is not in our looks or in our marital or motherly status or in our towering intellects. If we're Christians, our worth is in nothing else but Jesus Christ. There's a story of a minister of the gospel who opens each sermon by telling his congregation that they are not his righteousness, Christ is. This is also true of the Christian academic: academic honours, regalia, tenure, class popularity, and publications are not your righteousness, Christ is. And for the Christian SAHM: the number of children you have, your child's manners, your child's good-natured spirit, the success of your husband, your income, your frugality, your hostessing abilities and your security are not your righteousness, Christ is.
So thinking Christian young women need thinking Christian role models. They need women who have been there, who think through deep questions and can model different ways of living out their womanhood in light of the gospel in front of them. Young women in college who aren't Christians need to see Christian women professors who are different from how the "evangelical right" is flattened out by the media. As Christians, we need to be a part of all spheres and reclaim them for Christ. We need to first examine Scripture and then to be "all things to all people", including Christian women role models in a college setting.
