The Flipside of Feminism

A Cottage Garden in Full View

by Val Norman

Feminist occasionally try to make a point about the use of modern inventions by homemakers: driving a car, using a computer, publishing books, having a home or cottage industry, earning money with personal talent such as art, crafts, etc., and so forth. Their claim is that without feminism, women would not be allowed to read, write, drive, or conduct business.

 I have always answered that the feminist movement was never needed. Their claim of being responsible for all these privileges is false.  These things were enjoyed by women long before the 20th century feminist movement.

 From a Biblical perspective, Christ freed women and made them "heirs together" in the grace of life. 1st Peter 3:7.  The only liberator women need is Christ, and they do not need liberation from their duties as guardians of the home. Discontent at home, feminists insist that women need not use their talents for the family, but should make their mark outside of the home.   This has done great harm to the home and the family, as it indoctrinates  young women not to desire the honor of being wives, mothers and homemakers.

The best way to make your mark outside the home is to do a good job inside the home. Good works from the home never go unnoticed and do create a reputation for the home.

In tiher book, "The Flip Side of Feminism" by Suzanne Venker and  Phyllis Schlafly, Phyllis addresses this same comment, stating that feminism never helped her succeed in anything.  You can view her speaking about it on a video here. It is also imbedded at the end of this post.

One thing I have not seen addressed much  is the constant mockery that prevails toward the homemaker, and especially the Biblical homemaker who desires to home school, make her own bread, grow a garden, sew clothes, and create a home life for their loved ones.  Those who promote feminism have to first break down the things that stand in their way, and this is seen in the amount of derision, deriding and despising that is aimed at this honorable and Biblically approved life. 

The concept  of  the pedestal has been scorned to such an extent that these days, no one dares to mention it in regard to the reputation men and women must uphold in their own spheres. One chapter in "The Flip Side of Feminism, titled "The Pedestal," states that women need to get off men's pedestal, and get back on their own.  Helen Andelin made this concept more widely known, when she wrote that the women needed to stay in their feminine role. She warned that sometimes people would try to shake her pedestal and want to bring them down to their level, away from her lofty position as wife, mother and guide of the home.

My own belief is that God gave women a wonderful way to live through His Word which teaches them to take charge of the home.  There is plenty to do at home for the young, even without children, and when they become older, they should be teaching others about the things they just finished doing. One stage of life prepares them for the next. Young women must learn to keep house, practice it and become good at it, and when they are older, show the younger women how to do it. The trials and errors of homemaking, child-rearing and marriage prepare women to be teachers of good things. Even a woman who has learned from her mistakes can be a good teacher, as she attempts to help the next generation to have good judgement.

In His wisdom and perfection, God created the most natural way of life for women. If this is the right way, why then, do women worry that it is not enough, that it will not work, that it will give them no rights, or that it will not be possible?  Why do women listen the world advising them to have "back-up-plans," or "something to fall back on"?  Does God's word need a back up plan?  Women need instead to back-up God's plan by putting it into practice.  Yes, in a sense, we need back-up plans, but they should be re-enforcements, not substitutes. When you want to keep the wind from blowing away your soil, you plant trees and shrubs around it. When you want to stay home, you find ways of doing it, and ways of proving that it works. I repeat: we need to back up the plan God already gave us in Titus 2, Ist Timothy 5:14 and others.

Proverbs 31 seems complicated and exhausting, but in the New Testament, the last will and testament of Christ, which is our spiritual authority today, the role of a woman is much simplified, and it is for her own peace. It gives about three main things for the woman in the church of Christ, to do: marriage, raising children and keeping house. This is reinforced in several different passages as guiding the home, guarding the home, training children, respecting the husband, and having a quiet and gentle spirit. One way to acquire that quiet and gentle spirit is to limit your activities to just the important ones that are given in the Bible: the care of the home and the guiding of the family.

 God knows the nature of women and the danger of being over loaded with the worries of this world, and wisely allows her to be a home, where she can choose how she will look after it, what talents she will pursue, and how her children will be trained. In order to retain the quiet and gentle spirit, a woman must not take on the role of a man.

Fully embracing and enjoying the role at home is not dependent on money, as feminists would make us believe. Read my comment about one of the gods of this age, the economy, which women submit to as an excuse to leave their homes and families and pursue wages, on The Thinking Housewife.