Sherman Kuek
Published in Catholic Asian News (October 2008 Issue)

WOMEN ARE EQUAL TO MEN

At the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, the council fathers highlighted the divinely endowed role of women in society which urgently summoned the attention of womenfolk:

The hour is coming, in fact, has come, when the vocation of woman is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.

(The Council's Message to Women, 08 December 1965)

This statement marked the call for women to rise up as guiding forces in a modern society characterised by decadence in various aspects of life. It was a most natural result of the inherent and alienable dignity of women being recognised by the council fathers.

The inherent value and dignity of the woman is implied from the intrinsic value of every human being (CCC 1928-1938). Sacred Scripture writes, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Men alone do not reflect the glory of humanity in its fullness. In accordance with God’s scheme of creation, it is the complementarity of both sexes together that brings about the more complete reflection of God’s own image.

Based on such universal human rights that emanate from the Christian understanding of personhood, the Holy Father John Paul II spoke of a “Christian feminism” which he deemed necessary for the exposure of the fuller truth about women. He affirmed the vitality of women’s presence in all aspects of social life. In relation to that, he defended the dignity of their being: their skill, their professionalism, their intellectual abilities, their deep sensitivity, among many other admirable qualities inherent to the person of the woman.

Evidently, the Church of this century has affirmed the role of women in an unprecedented way. Like never before, the equal dignity of women is defended as an intrinsic right that is divinely endowed, and which no other person has the right to take away.

However, whilst propelling the Church to examine the human historical past with courage, it must be noted that the kind of feminism John Paul II spoke of took a rather different shape in comparison with the kind of feminism found in many sociological movements today (and which, very sadly, has also pervaded the Church).

In accordance with the teachings of the Church, authentic feminism is that of women finding the “entire meaning of their femininity and thus [being] disposed to making a ‘sincere gift of self’ to others, thereby finding themselves” (Mulieris Dignitatem, 15 August 1988). It is only in this sense that a woman can be said to be “acting freely”.

NOT SAME AS MEN
The freedom of a woman is to be found in her capacity to be who she was meant to be, and not to be like someone else or to act in someone else’s capacity.

As most women themselves point out, equality of dignity should not be taken as a synonym for "sameness with men". Such an understanding would merely impoverish women and greater society by distorting or compromising the unique wealth and intrinsic value of femininity (Letter of John Paul II to Mrs Gertrude Mongella, 26 May 1995).

On this note, one may observe that certain factions of feminists in society tend to exhibit rather disturbing inclinations. For example, some feminists implicitly imply that the acknowledgement of women’s equality involves the trivialising of manhood. The undertones of their verbal expressions can be very telling of a “who-needs-men” attitude.

Mrsg Celestino Migliore, in his address to the United Nations on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women on 08 March 2007, cites an example of how this has happened in the past. He describes the antagonistic approach taken by some feminists in defending the rights of women, which “exalts opposition” between men and women, rather than giving rise to “mutual respect and recognition of the identity and the role of one towards the other”.

Another pertinent example would be that of battling for the right to do just about anything that men do. Because it is alleged that history and culture have been perpetrators of the supposed inferiority of womenfolk, a great number of women are now attempting to reverse such roles by demonstrating that women too can very proficiently undertake the roles that are commonly attributed to men. Whilst this is warranted to a certain degree, when the traditional roles of say, motherhood, have to give way to a newfound “manhood”, society further breaks down.

True, it was said by John Paul II that cultural conditioning had been instrumental in women’s roles being “relegated to the margins of society and even reduced to servitude” (Letter of Pope John Paul II to Women). This reality indeed warranted a new effort for the restoration of women’s dignity, to be sure.

But in the same breath, one must take heed of Mrsg Celestino Migliore’s exhortation that “equality goes hand in hand with and does not endanger, much less contradict, the recognition of both the difference and complementarity between men and women”. Whilst the Church affirms that women can and should become actively involved in all areas of public life, it also defends the traditional roles of women which constitute the most intrinsic meaning of what “womanhood” means in accordance with God’s divine design.

A truly Christian feminism means affirming that men and women are equal, both sexes created by God in His image, each having distinct but complementary gifts and attributes. It also means affirming that the social and ecclesial roles of women and men must conform to the natural law and the Divine Plan for mankind. Mulieris Dignitatem instructs, “In the name of liberation from male 'domination', women must not appropriate to themselves male characteristics contrary to their own feminine 'originality'”.

NOT MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
The other issue of concern arising from the feminist movement is that of the relationship among womenfolk themselves. The rise of a faction of women in defending the rights of women is often accompanied by the often perpetuated muting of a silent majority among womenfolk whose views continue to be ignored. This phenomenon leads to the views of the women activists often being misrepresented as expressing the collective belief of women, which in turn causes inequality even among women themselves.

Some women choose to embody their womanhood through undivided devotion towards the raising of children and caring for the home as a fulltime vocation. But by the standards of many feminists, even the voluntary embrace of such traditional roles is denigrated. Such women, by their standards, are unenlightened prisoners of cultural conditioning.

The pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm proclaimed: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, a statement that ended up being the famous slogan of Animalism. It seemed that they had rallied to establish a form of government which officially ratified the absolute equality of all people but in reality endowed extra privileges to an elite minority.

This scenario, even if originally written in satirical reaction to Soviet totalitarianism, serves as a reminder to us that our endeavours for equality in the Church and society, and battles on behalf of a people once downtrodden, must never give rise to the emergence of a new form of elitism. Were such a scenario to occur, the creation of an elite minority would be accompanied by the actualisation of a new marginalised people; and the vicious cycle would continue endlessly.

A constant reminder that needs to always be set forth is that the endeavour for the equal dignity of women is not a battle for power or significance; it is a battle for dignity. And the battle for dignity implies that our efforts to dignify a marginalised people must not compromise the dignity of other peoples. Only then is the principle of equality truly upheld.

But to be sure, with all such issues placed in appropriate perspective, affirmation of the equal dignity and significance of women in society emphatically resounds from the voice of the Church. Pope Paul VI, in an exhortation to women, said:

You women have always had as your lot the protection of the home.... You are present in the mystery of a life beginning. You offer consolation in the departure of death. Our technology runs the risk of becoming inhuman. Reconcile men with life, and above all, we beseech you, watch carefully over the future of the race. Hold back the hand of man, who in a moment of folly might attempt to destroy civilisation. Women of the entire universe, whether Christian or non-believing - you to whom life is entrusted at this grave moment in history, it is for you to save the peace of the world.