Christianity & Equality Within the Family (Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies B)

Christian Teachings Regarding the Equality of Men & Women

Christianity and the Roles of Men and Women

• Christians believe that men and women were both made in the image of God

• However, there are different Christian attitudes to the roles of men and women in the family

  • Some Christians believe that men and women should continue to have traditional roles

  • Some Christians may believe that a traditional view of men as providers and women as child carers is outdated and that men and women should have equal roles within society and the family

• The different interpretation could be because the bible has different teachings relating to the roles of men and women

• Some biblical teaching can be interpreted to mean that men and women are equal  

  • Genesis 1 teaches the equality of men and women as they were created at the same time and were both created in the image of God

• Some biblical teaching seems to highlight the differences between men and women

• In Genesis 2 and 3 it says that woman was created after man and out of his rib, therefore, woman is ‘subordinate’ to man

• These chapters also explain that evil came into the world as the fault of Eve as she was persuaded by the serpent (devil) and she then persuaded Adam and, as a result, God punished the woman

• There are also other biblical references used by some Christians to support different roles for men and women

  • St Paul says in Ephesian 5:21-30 that ‘wives should submit to their husband because the husband is the head of the wife in the same way that Christ is head of the Church’

    • This implies that the wife should do as she is told by the husband

    • St Paul also says that husbands should love their wives in the same way they love their own bodies but this could imply that men should feed and care for their wives, reinforcing the subservience of women

Divergent Christian Attitudes Towards Equality of Men & Women

Divergent Christian Attitudes Towards the Roles of Men and Women

• The different Christian denominations have differing approaches to the roles of men and women

  • Evangelical Protestant teach that men and women have separate and different roles

    • It is the role of the woman to bring up children and run a Christian home

    • The role of the man is to provide for the family and lead the family in religion

    • Some Evangelical Christians believe that, in worship, men should be the leaders and women should be the helpers, because the Book of Genesis states that women were created to be helpers

  • Catholics teach that men and women should have equal roles in life and family 

    • This is based on Genesis 1:27; the Church teaches that men and women have equal status in the sight of God

    • However, the Church should be led by men and so women priests are not allowed because Jesus’s twelve disciples were male, and the bible says:

• Liberal Protestants accept that men and women are equal and should have equal roles in life and the family

  • They may argue that the Bible was written at a time of male dominated society therefore gender inequality was common

  • Many Churches today reflect the belief that both men and women were created equally in God’s image, therefore both should have a leading role in worship

  • The Quakers, The Salvation Army and the Anglican Church all allow female ministers and believe that as God loves us all equally

Non-Religious Attitudes Towards the Roles of Men and Women

• Atheists would tend to base their opinions on the norms within society which have changed over the years

  • In 1965; 85% of men agreed that the ‘man’s job is to earn money, a woman’s job is to look after the home and family’

  • in 1989 only 32% of men agreed with the statement, and by 2008 only 17% of men agreed

• The most common non religious attitude is that men and women have equal roles in the family

  • The main reasons for the change are

    • The development of equal rights for women (sex discrimination is now illegal, there is the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act)

    • Social and industrial developments in the 50’s and 60’s led to more women workers being needed

    • The work of the suffragettes and the feminist movements to gain equal voting and political rights for women showed men in authority that women were no longer prepared to be mistreated