Marie-Céline Mbousnoum

When my husband found himself out of work, he asked me to help him launch a new business in metallurgy. At first, I didn't want to, because for me it was an unknown field, and there were only men in this business. Besides, I had legal training, and that was the most attractive profession for me.

In our new business, my husband planned and supervised the execution of the work. I did the marketing and looked for new customers. I also took care of administrative responsibilities, banking, and personnel management — the personnel being entirely male.

To accomplish this, I reached out to God. I often read the Bible and Science and Health. I realized that prayer and radical confidence in God bring practical solutions to any business problem — job insecurity, a career in jeopardy, or the survival of a company. In our case, it was a matter of survival — for our company and ourselves.

One time, I spent the whole night praying because our financial situation was so stressful. We had no more money. We had to find clients. As I prayed, spiritual ideas kept coming. I felt confident and waited for guidance from God.

I reached a point where I didn't consider myself so much as a man or a woman but simply as someone who expressed God's qualities. One day, I found myself in conflict with one of my workers. He insulted me in front of all the others. He said that he too had a wife, but she was in her right place — at home. As I reached out to God, I understood there were no differences between us, that we're all children of God. I continued all night in prayer. Suddenly I found myself loving all of the people I work with. The following day, the man apologized. After that, whenever he met me, he tried to be helpful.

I'm not a militant feminist. I'm a Christian Scientist. I solve problems through prayer. The third chapter of Genesis in the Bible speaks of a false concept of woman. It says, “...in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (v. 16 ). The first chapter of Genesis, however, reads “...God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them"” (v. 27 ).

If people take chapter three literally, they may believe women can't express their God-given qualities. To rise above that — and this has helped me a lot — women need to understand the first chapter of Genesis, which shows that woman is the image of God, on an equal footing with man. She has the capacity to express the qualities of God. Today we are seeing this. Women are prime ministers, astronauts, and high-level military officers. In our African traditions, women are sometimes head of the family.

When we started our business, we had two eight-year-old daughters. At first, I found it difficult to combine my role as mother with my role as head of a company. But I was delighted to see how I was able to carry out both roles. I took my daughters with me wherever I went — to see clients, to the bank, everywhere. This was enriching for me as a mother, but it was also enriching for my daughters, and for others around me.

One day when we were without work, my husband and I didn't know what to do. So I again turned to God. The next morning, as I was driving to my offices, it occurred to me to drive instead to a railway company. I'd never been there before. I asked to see the director, saying I was looking for work. The person in charge told me, “The work that we do here, you could not do because it is work for men. Do you know how to weld?” I said, “Yes, we are a metallurgy company, and we do welding.” His eyes opened wide.

When he heard where my company was located, he said, “Even if I wanted to, I couldn't give you work, because you need a track leading to your company so that the railway cars needing repairs can reach your workshop. This would be very expensive.” I told him, “No problem.” That same day I drove to the management offices of this company and asked for an estimate for installing tracks leading to our workshop. The man I spoke with said, “Madame, I feel that I have to help you get these tracks.” Within a month, the tracks were laid. They were paid for gradually, through deductions from the amounts due us for the railway car repairs. This work was our only activity for about six years.

Spiritual law reveals the perfect man and woman that God created. Outside this spiritual law, the role of woman is often a role of slavery. The problem is that at times women themselves are unsure of their capacities. They sometimes think that God has endowed men with more abundant and more formidable qualities than women. This isn't so. We can all express God's qualities. God's love is impartial.