Meeting the demand for a full and complete humanity
As International Women’s Day is celebrated all over the world on March 8, and Women’s History Month is celebrated in March in the United States, we find we are growing into a world demanding that both men and women be honored equally. We can rejoice with every step of progress on this front, realizing with great sobriety the steps we need to continue making.
Gender equality stands as one of the most important indicators of the health and progress in our nations, in our communities and families. A more spiritual view of womanhood is needed for humanity to reach its full potential and to experience equality and sustainable reform. As the reflection of God, both men and women are strong and wise. They reflect the loving Father-Mother described by Moses in the Bible as a mother eagle who “stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, … beareth them on her wings” (Deuteronomy 32:11 ); and in Isaiah, we read this loving assurance from God: “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you” (66:13 ).
True womanhood counters the self-defeating claim that women are vulnerable or destined to suffer. To a largely patriarchal thought, true womanhood brings balance and prosperity, wholeness and stability, illustrating that the “union of the masculine and feminine qualities constitutes completeness” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 57 ).
Christian Science presents an inspired and practical view of womanhood that responds to the world’s demand for equality. It brings out the revolutionary truth that because God is Spirit, women and men—made in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26, 27 )—are spiritual, not material. When Mary Baker Eddy discovered and wrote about this truth in the mid-19th century, women had few rights. She bucked the status quo that said women could not teach or preach. She called her discovery Science because she proved repeatedly that an understanding of men’s and women’s spiritual nature could overcome all kinds of human limitations, including the healing of physical diseases.
Mrs. Eddy established a church with roles shared equally between men and women. She is considered by some to have “demonstrated towards the equality of the sexes as no other human being has” (Sentinel, February 8, 1908), and her discovery broadly impacted major areas of thought—in science, theology, medicine, and social reform. Mrs. Eddy discovered spiritual laws behind all progress and reform, and was equally alert to those obstacles that would try to stagnate or reverse humanity’s forward development. She saw how civil law treated women unfairly and wrote: “In natural law and in religion the right of woman to fill the highest measure of enlightened understanding and the highest places in government, is inalienable, and these rights are ably vindicated by the noblest of both sexes. This is woman’s hour, with all its sweet amenities and its moral and religious reforms” (No and Yes, p. 45 ).
That statement on women’s rights was not solely about advancing the female gender. She saw how the spiritual truth of womanhood supported progress and expanded opportunities for all humanity.
The spiritual understanding of womanhood had a healing impact on me during my two pregnancies. It made me realize I could naturally identify with health, wholeness, and strength, and not accept the limiting material view that I was made to suffer. My prayer, based on this understanding, brought about quick healings of slurred speech, loss of feeling in one arm, and signs of kidney failure, on three separate occasions. And by understanding the all-inclusive nature of true womanhood, my husband and I found it natural to switch roles as primary breadwinner and primary caregiver when our sons were young. It opened up new and satisfying possibilities for us both. This understanding has also been the foundation to our raising a family of compassionate men.
Science and Health says: “The ideal man corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love” (p. 517 ). Lasting reforms and progress rest on this spiritual view of women and men, in which we find that equality and synergy, not domination or division, characterize the sexes.
Equality is based on the spiritual law of one infinite God reflected by the male and female of God’s creating. There is no inferior so-called law that can stop us from breaking the barriers of gender inequality. God defines creation and governs by the spiritual law of Love, which leaves no room for any material law with its degrading definitions of men and women. The spiritual law of Love casts out fear and bullying. And as we become more familiar with the permanence and purity of God as Love, we accept our divine right to health and wholeness, and grow in confidence and fearlessness.
The divinity of true womanhood includes true manhood, and this divine view elevates and improves our world. We can support and engage in the momentum of progress reported on globally. For instance, girls’ education has increased worldwide; more men are raising their voices against violence against women; and gender inequality and all its derivatives are being addressed as never before. Progress, based on spiritual law, is inevitable.
Our humanity is built on the higher claims of divinity that define our spiritual nature. These higher claims affirm the value of woman and the moral courage of all to stand up to oppression and division, and embrace a humanity of equality and inclusivity. This fills our deepest hunger for a more just and harmonious society in which all women and men can find increasing freedom from any challenging circumstance and discover new possibilities and solutions that bring lasting peace and progress.
Kim Crooks Korinek
