The Rights of Woman...

Yes, it is true. Alas and sigh, a woman is a human being (note my sarcasm). Nowadays, I think it's safe to say, most people in America believe that women are humans, despite one's religious or non-religious affiliation. Can you believe it, though, that only 200 years ago and beyond, the very humanity of women was an issue (in the West)? I mean, can you believe that society believed and propagated that women did not have souls, were inferior to men in rational ability, and were created by God for the sole purpose of pleasing men, a purpose that, when unfilled, left an incomplete "woman." A woman's identity was wrapped up in relation to her father, her brothers, or her husband (for all of which she was a monetary figure). What's scary is that I find parts of myself (and so many women in our culture) believing the lie that a woman's identity is in her beauty and appeal to men. (Praise God that He is the foundation of the identity of every woman and every man.)

Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" is an excellent argument for the humanity of women. This work is SO fascinating...she does not put women above men. Rather, she argues that man and woman both are rational creatures created equal in the sight of God. She does not say man and woman are the same, but are equal. She provides excellent insight into the reality of marriage: how a marriage based on pleasure will fade, but a marriage based on friendship is lasting. As La Rochefoucauld says, "Rare as true love is, true friendship is still rarer."

I don't posit that everything Wollstonecraft writes is correct. But I do think that she provides great insight into a society which oppressed females in a very covert way. Whether or not you are male or female, I think you should try reading a part of her work; I would start with the Introduction and Chapter 2.

Granted, Wollstonecraft is a Western thinker, raised in England. We as Westerners have our own ideas of the "place" of men and women. We as Christians have our own ideas. I always want to keep in mind, however, that the oppression of women (and other disenfranchised peoples) occurs prevalently throughout the world still today, some in extreme cases of oppression and even subject mutilation, but some in more "moderate" cases of subjugation to sexism and religion. (Another frustrating fact is that men are oppressed too, but often have no venue of expressing and/or fighting that oppression.)

The plea of the oppressed (male or female, black or white, Muslim or atheist) is the plea of the unheard. As a Christian, I want to hear the unheard, to see the invisible...for the glory of Christ and the furthering of His kingdom.