From the Christian perspective, Jesus Christ was a radical in His day. When women were not respected, were not spoken to by men in public, and were rarely educated, Jesus moved in a completely countercultural way. We catch glimpse after glimpse of this radical Jesus. To the surprise of his disciples, Jesus engages a woman at the well in discussion, doubly shocking in that time, given that she was both a woman and a Samaritan, a group of people with whom the Jews did not typically associate (John 4).

We learn that Jesus had a very close relationship with Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus (John 11:5). In one moving scene, we find this Mary of Bethany seated at the feet of Jesus, a posture typical for rabbinical students of the time. When Mary’s sister Martha scolds her for not helping to prepare the meal, Jesus affirms Mary’s choice to sit and learn (Luke 11:38-42).

In a culture that valued sons and not their daughters, Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Luke 8:40-45). In a culture where the testimony of women was not admissible in a court of law, Jesus performs his first miracle and makes his first appearance after the resurrection to three women, making them the first eyewitnesses and messengers of the Christian faith (John 2; Luke 24).

And it is well known, that the role of Jesus’ mother was revered at the time and is revered to this day with all Christian denominations, especially Roman Catholic.

In the early church, Paul’s first convert in Philippi was a prominent and successful business woman named Lydia, who opened her home to the itinerant preacher while he planted the Philippian church, and later, very likely, was the monetary backer behind the sending of Epaphroditus who cared for Paul while imprisoned in Rome (Acts 16). Paul also talks of Euodia and Syntyche as “women who contended at [his] side in the cause of the gospel” (Phil. 4:3). And the book of Acts records that Priscilla and her husband Acquilla, who hosted Paul and lead a house church, were specifically used to reach people in Rome, Greece, and Asia Minor (Acts 18).

There is much controversy over the Biblical mandate that women are to be in submission to their husbands. But those who object to those words fail to look at the husband’s obligation to the woman. While the woman is to submit to the husband’s leadership, the husband is to treat the wife as Christ treated the Church. And that is that He gave Himself up for her. In other words, Christ died on the cross for the Church; in this analogy men are supposed to be willing to sacrifice themselves totally for their wives (Ephesians 5:22-33). While a lot of feminists howl about the submission part of the equation, they fall strangely silent on the male responsibility which is, in my mind, far greater.

In the practical application, Christians have been the vanguard of securing women’s rights. Remember, the Suffragettes were led by Christians. Sojourner Truth, for whom we have named one of our space vehicles, was an African-American woman who was motivated by her Christian faith to fight for the rights of women. As the backdrop to the women’s Suffragist movement, we see Christian women taking a leading role in furthering education, care for the poor, and mission.

Hannah More, a contemporary and co-laborer with William Wilberforce, the Christian statesman who ended the slave trade in England, developed the Sunday School Movement, which led to the literacy and education of boys and girls across England and later throughout America. Women actively participated in the missionary movement. By 1900, over three million women were active in their denominational women’s societies, sending missionaries, and building orphanages, hospitals, and schools across the globe. (Robert, Dana L. American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice; Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1996, p. 129). It was these Christian societies that laid the groundwork and infrastructure for women organizing in the Suffragist movement.

It is true that the surrounding culture has often demeaned and undervalued women and that biblical mandates have historically been improperly used against women. However, when you consider the Bible’s own high view of women and the complementary character of men and women as properly understood, Christianity becomes one of the greatest single defenders of women’s rights.