“There are no girls in the Bible” - responding to lack of female rep in religion

[MadamPia]

When my daughter was 5 she said that “there are no girls in the Bible, just boys.”

We went to church regularly, had a children’s Bible that we read regularly. But I realised that many Christian churches do not share memorable or empower stories about girls and women.

As a woman I found that I had to do my own reading but I felt that this played such a role in the self esteem of many women that went to church every week without fail but struggled with their self image.

Anyway we decided to write about the females in the Bible - just for fun and I have learned so much!

I would love to hear how you would respond to this comment from a young girl and do you think more should be done to bring to light the role of women in religions?

I would tell her that many of the early Christian church leaders were women. Although she might have to be a bit older to understand that.

But yes, I’m Catholic and this is one of the reasons I barely attend church nowadays. Any intelligent women who feels she has any sort of vocation other than nun, or mother, flower arranging, laundering the altar linen, or church cleaning, has long since moved on.

I would say a child friendly version of "Yes-it's shit isn't it?"

And have a conversation about the attitude of all the world religions towards women from their beginnings up to now. But I am a feminist atheist-so I might not be a good person to ask!

There are women in the Bible 🤷‍♀️maybe you need a better edition

I don’t even know where to start with this. There are TONNES of girls with really important roles - Mary for a start, and the first people to witness the resurrection were women! However, as a Catholic I totally recognise that in the church in general women are often sidelined so much and wish there was more we could do.

There's Mary - Jesus's mother - you don't get far without her!
And Mary Magdalene, one of his closest friends.
And Martha and Mary, the sisters.
There's Ruth whose story is brilliant, and Esther who is also really brave.

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Bible#:~:text=These%20prominent%20women%20include%20the,subverting%20man%2Dmade%20power%20structures. I don't know my bible well enough to know who they all are.

Monotheistic belief systems tend to be misogynistic and patriarchal.
The role of women in Catholicism anyway tends to be to put up, shut up and do some free cleaning of the church and any other shit work the men can't be bothered with/feel they are too good for

Ruth and Esther both brilliant stories of strong women. The Queen of Sheba must be a been something!. Jesus was very pro women while on earth. I bought my daughter ‘Ten girls who changed the world’.

Deborah - book of Judges.

There are women in the Bible but I agree it’s rubbish for young girls as all the starring roles are male. Yes there are the two Marys and other random women but they are mainly bit part players without many lines or agency. The Old Testament is good for some feisty women but as a Christian (where the NT is more relevant) it’s frustrating and very telling where the power lay and still lies.

Buy a brilliant book by Janina Ramirez for her. It’s called Goddess, and features powerful female figures from religions and beliefs around the world and across the ages. I heard her talking about it at Hay Festival a few years ago and it went down a storm with all the kids there.

Goddess

Here’s a link.

It's interesting that the Gospel of Matthew includes female ancestors of Jesus, with details of their lives and decisions.

There's also Jael. And Salome. Although possibly not the best role models.

To be frank-I hate the "nonsense-there were loads of women!" attitude. No, there weren't. There were some. And they had very little lasting influence or the world religions wouldn't be the misogynist, patriarchal institutions they are today. Don't gloss over this stuff for our daughters.

Oh gosh where to start.

Susannah and the elders, Judith and Holofernes, Sarah, wife of Abraham and of course Hagar and Ishmael, the story of Jezebel, wife of Ahab.

There’s also the non-canonical texts, The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene) is fascinating.

But there are many incredible women involved in the history of the Church. I’m currently interested in the wonderful Hildegard von Bingen for example.

Of course there are women in the bible, many with influence and inspirational stories. The bible was written long long ago and society was more ruled by men than it is now so the bible reflects that. Still Christianity gave women a role in religion in a way that hadn't been done before. Women could lead worship which wasn't part of Judaism.

Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

There was a brilliant National Geographic edition on women of the bible about three years ago. Beautifully illustrated too. If you could get hold of a back copy it would be worth it!

Deborah. Israel's first female judge who put a tent peg through the temple of an enemy.

Inspiring stuff.

Still think organised religion is patriarchy in action, but the statement itself is untrue.

Women Remembered: Jesus' Female Disciples https://amzn.eu/d/1A5OJFU

OP, this is a fantastic book about women in the New Testament- aimed at adults so not suitable for a young girl but it will give you lots to talk about.

Well Mary Magdalene was the chief apostle, the one whom Jesus loved more than the others - of course she was edited out of much of the bible by the misogynists.

Let her read the far more enlightened gnostic gospels and keep her away from the abusive mainstream freak outfits full of male paedophiles.

It is worth remembering that saint Thomas Aquinas stated casually that a wife is lower than a slave, belongs to a man, is not competent for the moral authority of children and is subject to the authority of men.

He also stated that children should love their father more than their mother.

Obviously this depends on what denomination you are, but there are lots of female saints. Perhaps not all great role models for little girls given their tendency to self-mutilate or starve themselves for their faith (different times).

The story of Judith and Holofernes is powerful, gruesome stuff.

Deborah didn't put the tent peg through the enemy commanders head but she said that the victory would be given to a women as the men made her go with the army, saying they would only go to fight if she went too. The tent peg was actually was actually hit by a women named Jael.

Two powerful women in that story, one of my favourites.

All the children in my Sunday School are currently girls (the boys are now in secondary school so are out with the Youth instead) so we like the Women in the Bible Stories, and have looked at Anna, Elizabeth, Rahab, Ruth, Esther, Rebecca, Rachel, and so many more

As a child, I went to liberal Jewish Sunday school and was taught approvingly how Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel successfullly tricked/subverted heir husbands and favoured the youngest .
I naturally looked for more subversive females ( Jael etc) and loved the Witch of Endor and Jezebel....and became a happy pagan😂

https://www.micahhayns.com/copy-of-unveiled

This book is lovely and the art work is beautiful.

Deborah didn't put the tent peg through the enemy commanders head but she said that the victory would be given to a women as the men made her go with the army, saying they would only go to fight if she went too. The tent peg was actually was actually hit by a women named Jael.

Thanks for this correction. I am going off very faded memories as I haven't read the story on decades. Good for Jael!

Well, there are plenty and the fact that they were even mentioned is telling as throughout biblical times women would not have been very important so the Bible goes against the culture of the time. Esther, Deborah, Lydia,Mary, Mary, Martha, Ruth, Naomi so many strong women.