Thoughts on Sexism at Berks and in the Church

Are women and men equal? Media and entertainment has played a big role in this dilemma. Think back to all of your Disney Princess movies. What were they really about? The princess waits for a prince to come rescue her; they get married, and live happily ever after. This concept annoys me because in reality women do more than just sit around and wait for men to take action. We are educated and smart, and we deserve equal part in this world.

 
I recently had a chance to learn more about the topic of gender equality in the church during the weekly meeting of the Christian Student Fellowship club (CSF) here at Penn State Berks.
 
During the discussion, a fellow Berks student raised the question “Are women allowed to be leaders, pastors, teachers, or preachers in the church?” CSF Campus Minister David Hershey answered yes. He said that although there are many passages that demand women to be silent in the church (Cor. 14:34-35, 1 Tim. 2:8-15) those reflected the culture at the time it was written. During biblical times, women were not considered equal to men. The husbands would teach them at home; in church they had to be silent. In today’s culture, women are valued and equal in our society and should be treated similarly in the church.
 
I agree with his viewpoint and believe that women should be able to be pastors or leaders in church because they are completely equal to men. I can speak from experience; my mom teaches at a Sunday school and is a preacher in her church. She is constantly learning new things and teaching all of us, including my father. Although I would never admit it to my father, she is a thousand times smarter than he is! I never understood why anyone would believe that women couldn’t or shouldn’t teach or preach.
 
During the discussion I learned that not everyone shared his beliefs on the subject. For example, recent Berks alumnus John Letterman believes that women should not be allowed to preach or teach over men. I assumed this was because he was a male and a little sexist. But on the contrary; a current female Penn State student shared his same opinion. I sat down with Brittany Shreve afterwards and we discussed her opinion more in-depth.
 
I asked Brittany why she believed that women could not teach over men. In the Bible it says that women couldn’t and that she takes that passage very seriously. She continued to say, “People want to fit scripture into their personal beliefs, but this is like poking holes into scripture. I believe women are equal to men but that we have different roles to play. Teaching is not a role that women are meant to play since in the Bible teachers are said to be judged higher than others.”
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As Brittany spoke, I still did not agree. If women are afforded the same opportunities as men, why would they not be able to do the same things they do? Do we really view woman as equal or do we just pretend we do? I’ve heard stories of many famous women who have been treated unfairly just because they were woman. For example, Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight movie was a woman. After the huge success of the first movie, the producers kicked her to the curb because, it is rumored, of her gender.This leads me to believe maybe we aren’t considered as equal as we thought.
 
There is also the huge pressure for women to look a certain, unrealistic way. A Glamor study found that young women have an average of thirteen negative thoughts about their body each day. The famous singer Adele was also pressured into looking a certain way that may have been unrealistic for her body type. Her manager told her that she should lose some weight and she replied, “I make music for ears not for eyes.” This shocked and inspired me. I saw Adele as this beautiful woman and saw nothing wrong with her, but the pressure for women to be a size zero continues. So it leads me to ask, are women considered equal to men or are we just here to look pretty?
 
After these findings, the question for me ins’t “Is Christianity sexist?”, but instead “Are WE sexist”? Think about Penn State Berks. Do we view and treat women as equal here? Do we really cherish and value their intellect? Do we tend to exclude them from intellectual conversations or discussions? Do we care about their teachings?  Just look around your classes. As an Education major I know that the Educational field is dominated by mostly women. There aren’t really a lot of male teachers around. So my question is this: If women can teach outside of church and are more likely to do so, then why would they not be able to teach inside of church?