The role of women, undoubtedly the words “role” and “women” are continuously used as if there is a particular role “specified” for women. Not all women are mothers, nor can they all afford going to University, or have a prestigious lifestyle, which enables them to be educated, to work, and to manage sufficient time for their [...]
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Does the Bible recognize equality between men and women?
Posted: June 2, 2010 by Ruwayda Mustafah in Christianity, Equality, WomenThe controversy surrounding the status of men and women in Christianity involves the concept of “authority”. The concept of “authority” is synonymous with “power”. When someone has authority over something it necessarily follows that they would have some form of exercising power over it. For example, as a teacher I would be in a position of authority over my male and female students. How much authority I would have over my male and female students is contingent on college policy.
The intrinsic factor of who is in authority relates to equality. And equality here implies similarity and not sameness. It is important to distinguish between identicality and equality because they are two different concepts which are often misunderstood to mean the same thing. The term equality, that is, to be equal or equally treated is only in the qualitative sense and does not necessitate being treated or perceived as identical to something else. For example saying women are equal is not to say that they are the same. Therefore equality signifies being similar and not identical. If equality was about identical rights, then it would have been referred to as “identical rights“ and not “equal rights”.
