Woman, thou art...woman!

My wife is a wonderful, intelligent woman, and a very hard worker. Last year she worked with a student from a local college, who we'll call Beth. Beth was a psychology student, and feminist. She wouldn't come right out and say it, but if you talked to her long enough, you'd know. My wife is still in college herself, working towards an education degree. She knows she'll need it, because I probably won't be topping any Forbes lists in our lifetime. But if you ask her what she wants to do, she'll tell you she wants to be a wife and mother.

This is NOT okay with Beth. According to her the desire to stay home is socialized thinking that comes from our demonic, patriarchal society, and every woman who goes along with it is sending women back to the dark ages. Women should be out taking advantage of all the opportunities gained over the last 100 years, not submitting to the male dominated social image of a smiling housewife. They should be doing whatever their hearts desire...except staying home.

This seems to be the opinion of most feminists, judging from the response to a group started on the campus of the University of Virginia in 2004 called the Network of Enlightened Women (NeW). Shortly after the organization was founded the school paper ran cover art of "a woman dressed in a perfectly ironed pristine shirt with a checkered apron, connected to a machine with 12 babies popping out while stirring her batter and reading her recipe with the headline 'Manifest Domesticity.'" Apparently if you disagree with a feminist you are a human version of Rosie from the Jetsons (without the quick wit).

I wonder what God thinks of the places of men and women in society? What did he intend? We know that women and men are different. Some people would have you think we aren't; others want you to believe we just found out (and we're totally surprised!); but we've known for all time. It's clear that men and women are created to play different roles in the world and in their relationships.

Example 1: women have babies. Not that that's their only function, but they do it. Men can't pull that off (except for Ah-nold). Because God created women with the responsibility of bearing children, he also equipped them with the natural ability to care for them.

Example 2: men have more muscle. Not all men, but men in general have a higher muscle:fat ratio, and more total muscle than women. And men are constantly wanting to hit, chase, beat, and wrestle things (just watch any group of 6 year-old boys...or 20 year-olds). Could God have intended for men to hunt things?

Of course, there are exceptions. Men love their kids, and some women hold babies like they're radioactive. Women play sports and some guys weigh 100 pounds fully dressed and soaking wet. But there's a natural order. Ephesians 5:22-33. The husband is commanded to love, and the wife to submit. This submission isn't one of servitude or inferiority, but trust. This tells women to trust their husbands, and in turn tells men to be worthy of their wives' trust. They are to love and protect their wives' as they would their own bodies.

I could try to stir up some controversy by letting you think that I believe all women need a man to tell them what to do, or that men should always be in charge. But that's not the case. Each couple has the responsibilty to find Godly balance in their relationships. Society's problem is that it continues to ignore the differences that are staring them in the face.

What ends up happening is that women, ignoring and even shunning their femininity, begin to act like men, in order to succeed. Some of these women actually believe that considering traits "masculine" and "feminine" is a construct of society, and we shouldn't believe in that. But I don't buy that. Sure there are some things that society, possibly unjustly, assigned to one side or the other, but the sides, and most of the traits assigned to them, are rooted in truth. The real women's movement should be encouraging women to embrace their femininity in healthy and constructive ways. We know women are just as smart, just as capable, and just as hard working as men. You don't have to act like us, too.

But hey, what do I know? I'm just a guy.