Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 14:2 (Spring 2000)
Article: Logical And Theological Problems With Gender Hierarchy
Author: Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

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PP 14:2 (Spring 2000) p. 3

Logical And Theological Problems With Gender Hierarchy

The Idea That Women Are Equal In Their Being, Yet Unequal By Virtue Of Their Being, Simply Makes No Sense.

Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

Rebecca Merrill Groothuis is a freelance writer and editor and author of Good News for Women: A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality (Baker) and Women Caught in the Conflict: The Culture War Between Traditionalism and Feminism (Wipf & Stock). This article is taken from material in Good News for Women.

The debate over biblical teaching on gender roles has focused primarily on the exegetical intricacies of a handful of controversial texts, with neither side able to answer completely every objection or difficulty with their position. After more than two decades, it seems clear that this approach is not exactly moving the discussion toward resolution. Perhaps there are other perspectives from which this disagreement may be assessed more productively.

If we look not only at the controversial biblical texts, but also at the philosophical assumptions and theological implications of the doctrine of gender hierarchy, we find inherent difficulties that seriously undermine the traditionalist belief system. This, then, offers a compelling cause to favor egalitarian rather than hierarchical interpretations of the controversial texts.

Being And Function

Problems within the traditionalist belief system are both logical and theological. The biggest logical problem is with the assumption that woman’s inferior status does not entail an inferiority of woman’s essential nature. How often have we heard it explained that the subordinate female role is only a matter of “function” and does not mean that women are inferior to men? “Equal in being, unequal in function” is the theoretical construct to which traditionalists appeal in order to assert female subordination to male authority and, at the same time, to affirm the biblical teaching that men and women are spiritually equal.

This is a crucial point, because the entire traditionalist agenda turns on the assumption that women’s subordination to men does not violate the fundamental biblical equality of women with men. If it can be shown that the subordination traditionalists prescribe for women entails an inferiority not merely of function but also of being, then the traditionalist agenda as currently expressed is internally incoherent; it contradicts itself.

I agree that it is possible for a person to be justly placed in a position of functional subordination without being fundamentally inferior as a person. Yet I disagree that this is what is happening with the traditionalist subordination of women. Female subord...

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