WHO MAKES THE DECISIONS?

WHO MAKES THE DECISIONS?

8 March is the 107th International Women’s Day. Changing traditional default positions about women’s place in society is a slow process. Men will say they respect and love their women folk but their place is in the home. It is natural and has always been like that. Unconsciously, that is, without reflecting, most men see themselves as the decision makers, the head of the family, and they will quote passages from the holy books of their religion to support their attitude.

But for 107 years and more women have been asking questions: Why is this so? Should it be like this?  And they have gone on to demand change. The UK considers itself an enlightened country but it took a mighty struggle for women to achieve the right to vote. More than a hundred years ago a woman stepped out in front of a race horse belonging to the king in a protest to achieve the vote for women and she was trampled to death. The next day the press called her act stupid and as proving that women should not be trusted with the vote.

But for a hundred years women have edged forward, achieving some victories and losing others. There are more women now in high positions in politics, law, business and so forth. The Church of England has just ordained its first woman bishop. Part of the problem, I suspect, is that many men - and women – believe that it is ‘natural’ that men and women have different functions in society. Men are ‘hunters’ with all the modern equivalents of that word, while women are nurturers. I know a woman who has become a ‘hunter’ – she got a job in a foreign country, bought a house and a car and raised the kids. Her husband feels marginalised. He feels no longer a man.

So we still have unfinished business; how to balance the idea of equality with difference. It should not be fudged. We cannot just say those with traditional views on women are backward. Perhaps they are not convinced. We don’t have all the answers – yet. But one guiding principle could be, ‘Who makes the decisions?’ Mary McEleese, the former President of Ireland, asked this question when someone was listing the progress in women’s participation in Vatican commissions and committees. Yes, they are there, but does their presence extend to real influence?

Jesus angrily drove the traders out of the temple saying, ‘Stop turning my Father’s house into a market.’ ‘My Father’s house’? We are told that he was referring to his body and we know the church understands his body as the whole communion of believers. So the call for us is to respect that community in which everyone is ‘a first born.’ Women make up half the human race and are found in every culture and religion. If men and women grow in mutual respect,  listening and communion we will be making a start in building the Father’s house so that it is on earth what it is in heaven.   

8 March 2015                         Sunday 3B of Lent

Exodus 20:1-17                      1 Corinthians 1:22-25                        John 2:13-25