Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 32:4 (Autumn 2018)
Article: Christian Women’s Beliefs On Female Subordination And Male Authority
Author: Susan H. Howell

PP 32:4 (Autumn 2018) p. 14

Christian Women’s Beliefs On Female Subordination And Male Authority

Susan H. Howell

and Kristyn Duncan

The following three articles are co-authored by Susan Howell, who is Professor of Psychology at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky. Her degrees include an MEd and EdD from the University of Louisville. She has published articles in The Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, and Priscilla Papers. Dr. Howell is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies.

Kristyn Duncan is a senior psychology major at Campbellsville University where she is a research assistant for Dr. Howell. Kristyn is also the president of the Campbellsville University Egalitarians (CUE)..

While many congregations and individual Christians embrace egalitarian principles, many others remain committed to complementarian ideology, believing that men are to lead within the home and church and that women are to be subordinate. It is easy to blame men for buying into a system that maintains their own power position. However, the fact that many who take a more complementarian view are themselves women seems counterintuitive: Why would a woman espouse an ideology that consigns her to a less-than status?

To help answer this question, we surveyed women who agree with female subordination to learn the rationale behind their beliefs. In this article, we report our findings and explore what they tell us about effectively promoting gender equality.

Method

We recruited participants through social media, asking Christian women to provide their religious views by completing a survey. Although 421 individuals began the survey, only 72 of them were eligible to complete it based on their answers to the first three question: 1) “Are you a woman?” 2) “Are you a Christian?” and 3) “Do you believe that women should be under male authority?” Those who answered “yes” to each of these questions were routed through our survey, which elicited their beliefs regarding male authority and female subordination along with their rationale for these beliefs.

Results

The Bible passages that respondents cited most frequently as the basis for their beliefs about women were: Eph 5 (35 respondents), 1 Tim 2 (20), Gen 2–3 (18), Gen 1 (12), 1 Cor 11 (10), and Titus 2 (10).