Women in the Bible

My long-awaited first post is sorrowfully overdue. To my nonexistent readers, I apologize. Without further ado, let us delve into the topic of the bible during colonial times, its portrayal of women, and how that portrayal influenced society’s expectations of them. Furthermore, the bible’s influence on women in this day and age must also be discussed. Unfortunately, there are still a great many people who abide by its principles quite literally.

            According to constitution.org, the bible was “the most influential piece of literature in Colonial America” (constitution.org). In the early days, Americans were consumed with the building of a new nation, and scholarship was not always the first thing on their minds. However, since the colonies were largely comprised of puritan individuals seeking a haven in which to practice their religion, the bible remained a critical part of everyday life. Although historians lament the difficulty of obtaining a true measure of literacy in early America, some tentavie statistics exist. For instance, it is estimated that around sixty percent of white men in New England were literate between 1650 and 1670 (Lynch). However, obtaining knowledge regarding the literacy of women or minority groups is almost impossible. After all, slaves were not permitted to read, and for a long time women were not encouraged to do so, though they were not explicitly forbidden from it. It was considered highly important to educate one’s son, and highly improper to educate one’s daughter. However, the bible was one book which everyone got exposure to, for even those who could not read were bidden to listen as passages were read aloud to them in church, and in those days, church was widely attended.

            The bible’s ubiquity was not a good thing for women during the colonial period. From the very beginning, the bible establishes that women are inferior to men, that they are meant to live their live as men’s subordinates, and furthermore, that they are innately selfish, stupid, and unable to deny self-gratification. The story of Eve illustrates this plainly. Eve, the first woman on Earth, is created as an afterthought, to serve as Adam’s companion. She is made from his rib (an aspect of the story which has inspired countless modern-day jokes!), and Adam bestows her name upon her, further exerting his authority as her master. This turn of events is ironic; after all, life springs from the wombs of women. Therefore, it seems strange and unlikely that man should be the first sex to appear on earth. Later on, Eve transgresses. Her famous eating of the forbidden fruit establishes the stereotype that women cannot resist temptation, that they are duplicitous, and furthermore, that they lure men into transgressing with them (Harris).

            Unfortunately for colonial women, their society was led by the bible’s teachings. Thus, women were denied education. They depended on their husbands to provide for them due to the fact that society prevented them from being self-sufficient. Women did not have a voice in the government during that time, either. The ideology that the female gender was synonymous with duplicity proved to be deadly for some women. For example, witch hunts were prevalent in America throughout the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries. Out of all the individuals convicted of witchcraft, three-fourths of them were female (brittanica.com).

            The novel The Witch of Blackbird Pond offers an interesting, if fictional, portrayal of the way in which the bible’s ideology affected the treatment of women in colonial society. It relates the story of Kate, a young girl who travels from liberal Barbados to a stringent puritan settlement in America to live with distant relatives after her guardian dies. Religion plays a huge part of the way in which the townspeople relate to women, and the standards to which they are held. As a result Kate, with her elegant clothes and educated mind, is mistrusted and eventually prosecuted for witchcraft, an offense which she is completely innocent of, of course.

            In summation, I provide you a link to a blog post in which one Christian American man shares his standpoint on women and modesty. Let me be clear: I am not sharing this link to criticize the author of this blog. She is a very religious woman, and as a result, many of her beliefs clash with my own. However, she is also a very good person who works very hard to serve those less fortunate than herself, which I wholeheartedly believe in doing. Same goes for her husband, the author of this post. The post in question is merely an example of how the portrayal of women in the bible leads to inequalities in the way they are perceived today:

http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2010/08/anthony-shares.html