WHAT IS WOMAN
By Dellanna O'Brien

Editor's Note: Message is largely drawn from TIMELESS VIRTUES: THE STRENGTH OF BEING A WOMAN, by Dellanna O'Brien, published by New Hope, for release April, 2002. Copyrighted.

Texas Baptists Committed Annual Convocation

"I had done my homework," she said. "I thought I was prepared. But why did I dread it so much?"

I understood her discomfort. Talking about the "facts of life" had always been difficult for me, too. Born 20 years too soon, we lacked the advantage of a more open style in discussing sex. Teenagers hear so much now at school in sex education classes, but just as they did in my time, they probably still get most information from a less reliable source--each other. 

"I fast-forwarded to the actual delivery of a baby, armed with pictures and facts I had gotten from my doctor just for this purpose. When my son looked at the pictures of the birth, he winced. And then he asked, 'Doesn't it hurt?'"

"Well, yes, of course it hurts, but after it's all over, a mother forgets the pain in the joy of her baby."

He relaxed a bit, but then he straightened his shoulders and asked, "Are you sure it never happens to men?"

While modern medical miracles occur each year at an accelerating pace, no man has yet given birth to a child. Few men have chosen the role of woman in any case, and no wonder. Until the eighteenth century, "medical opinion saw the female body as a lesser variation on the male model, with analogous reproductive organs turned about and tucked inside." (Dianne Hales, JUST LIKE A WOMAN)

Today the scientific revolution is replacing old stereotypes with deeper understanding of women, and the differences between men and women are not seen as defects, damage or disease. "We are gaining greater insight into womanly ways of creating and connecting, expressing emotion and finding spiritual...fulfillment." (Hales, x)

Even as the birthing experience itself "never happens to men," other roles, challenges and characteristics appear to fall largely into a woman's domain as well. Women generally assume the "nurturer" role, having the strong compulsion to fix things and to relieve ills. And today plenty of things need fixing. We need not worry about job security in the maternal role!

WOMEN LIVE IN DAYS OF UNPARALLELED OPPORTUNITY

Imagine life at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1900:

The United States had one-fourth of the people it has now, and none of them had ever flown.

Highway accidents were rare (36 in 1900).

Married women stayed home. Some 800,000 wives were in the work force. Today approximately 34 million women juggle work and home responsibilities. Television and computers were the stuff of fiction. The average American family consisted of 4.8 people; in 1998 it had decreased in number to 2.6 people.

On December 7, 1941, life changed for all U.S. citizens. My family had gone to the home of a family in our church for Sunday dinner. The children rushed through the meal to go outside to play. After sitting through Sunday School and church, we needed to run off the accumulated energy. When we came back inside the house, the adults were still seated around the table, but their usual laughter and lively voices were missing. We soon knew the reason for their sober faces. Japan had bombed a military fleet resting in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii. Eighteen ships were destroyed and 2,400 men were killed. The next morning President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Germany and Italy honored their treaty with Japan by declaring war on the U.S., launching America into World War II.

As the men joined the armed forces, women at home took over their jobs in defense industries. Norman Rockwell pictured a young American woman in a factory on a magazine cover, and "Rosie, the Riveter" became an image of national pride. Not only riveters, but those women working in different capacities in defense plants and other jobs ordinarily held by men kept things going at home. After the war was over in 1945 and the men came home, some of the women continued working. Many more of them went home with their husbands and created the "Baby Boom," a phenomenon, which has since made its impact felt in every facet of life. Now that these "Boomers" are approaching retirement age, they continue as a group to affect the economy, legislation, and certainly the future.

After 1945 Rosie the Riveter faded from memory, a historic anomaly, until 1997 when they received invitations to the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, for special recognition. Out of that reunion Rosie was reinstated in an association, and on Pearl Harbor Day, 1998, the organization was incorporated.

By mid-century changes were accelerating. Television was not altogether common; in 1950 only 9 percent of the households reported owning one. Today 98 percent have one-or multiple units. I remember well spending Christmas in the home of my "wealthy" aunt in 1952. I knew she was rich, because she owned a TV! The height of luxury was sitting for hours enthralled by the early programming. Later we bought a TV set for ourselves, and when reception was poor, we, nevertheless, sat mesmerized by the "snow." Although technically better in production today, the programming of the Lawrence Welk Show, I Love Lucy, and the Ed Sullivan Show among others of those early days were hard to beat. Children could watch it all; nothing had to be rated for sexual or violent themes. My, how things have changed! Research conducted for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and released February 6, 2001, found sexual content on 68 percent of the 1999-2000 shows studied.

As with many of my age cohorts, I was the first in my family to be graduated from a university. The university catalog never carried a "For Men Only" designation, but most of the women self-selected out of a degree program leading toward any career other than secretary, teacher or nurse. A few hardy souls defied custom and chose a different career goal, but most of us blithely took our path along the tried and true avenues.

Today college women choose study programs in every department and seldom have difficulty landing a job in any field because of their gender. Not only that, women can matriculate in any college or university, even a military institute. What once caused a stir with the news media--a woman in the military! --hardly raises an eyebrow. And coeds can join freely in the sports program, as well, including football, boxing and hockey. Ten years ago 132 high school girls participated in wrestling. In 2000 there were 2,474. It is possible that women will wrestle in the 2004 Olympics. A TV program, highlighting the first Women's Professional Football League playoff, concluded with all the players shouting, "Who let the girls out? Oomp! Oomp!" (How do you spell that?)

With diversity in college offerings for girls, it follows that new careers await the female graduate unlike any time before. While she still bumps her head on the glass ceiling, the discrepancy of pay for the same job between women and men is less than ever before. Men train to fill teaching and nursing positions; women find fulfillment as construction workers and airplane pilots and doctors and lawyers and anything they want. The choices are unlimited. The best-paying job for women today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics is attorney, but the salary increase for nurses and teachers has done much to retain women who love those professions. (Aburdene and Naisbitt, MEGATRENDS FOR WOMEN) According to David Bach's SMART WOMEN FINISH FIRST (1999) "working women currently earn more than $1 trillion a year and account for upwards of 52 percent of all earned household income in this country."

With the coming of women to leadership positions, new styles of management have developed. Empowerment, openness and motivation fit more naturally into a woman's preference for listening and joint ownership than top-down communication, information as power, and ultimatum. "How do boss-women wield their power? The best of them don't." a report from Knight Rider Newspaper begins. "They are leaders, team players, colleagues, facilitators, employee advocates and consensus builders. They don't use power to control others."

In Megatrends for Women, Naisbitt and Aburdene state, "Over time women have evolved a successful leadership style that rejects the military model in favor of supporting and empowering people. Male management guru Peter Drucker endorses it--because it works better than the old ways."

Voters in 2000 must have agreed, for they elected the largest number of women ever for Congress, 13 in the Senate and 67 in the House of Representatives. "When George W. Bush looks out during his first speech to Congress a few weeks from now, he will see the faces of more women than at any time in the nation's history. What we are seeing is that politics is gradually beginning to catch up with medicine, law, business, journalism, and other professions in the advancement of females as leaders."

Like men, women are reported to have improved health. Life expectancy for women is now 79, a dramatic increase since 1900 when the typical woman could expect to live until age 48.

Women hold greater wealth than ever before. "According to IRS 35 percent of all estates valued at more than $5 million are controlled by women." Approximately half of all small businesses in this country are female-owned.

To summarize, today women are better educated, employed more widely, live longer and are healthier and wealthier to enjoy and make use of the last stage of life.

--DAYS OF UNPRECEDENTED ÊÊÊPROBLEMS

Just at the time women are experiencing unparalleled opportunity in every way, we also face problems of unprecedented and consuming magnitude.

Addiction both to alcohol and drugs remains a leading cause of concern to parents, schools, and society in general. It is a leading cause of crime. Babies born with fetal alcohol syndrome and addicted to drugs swell the infant death statistics. Aids, best friend of the grim reaper, has claimed 21.8 million lives worldwide since the epidemic began, including 9 million women and 4.3 million children under 15. While 95 percent of these statistics come from developing countries, the U.S. is not problem-free. In January of 2001, AIDS was the leading cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 25 and 44.

Poverty, although showing a decline in incidence in the 2000 census, still plagues too many of our people in wealthy U.S. A large gap exists between median incomes among racial groups. One in five children (20.3%) live in poverty. Those living with a mother but no father experienced a poverty rate more than five times the rate for children in married-couple families.

Domestic violence occurs more frequently than any other crime. Battering, results in more injuries to women than auto accidents, muggings and rapes combined. The male batterer is much more likely to abuse his children as well.

Pornography victimizes women and children. Its motive, the dollar. Its defense, constitutional freedom of the press. Invasion of the Internet is its latest tactic in getting in your home. 

Teenage pregnancy in the U.S. exceeds that of all other developed countries. 95 percent are unintended and almost 1/3 end in abortions.

Break down of the family has resulted in a changing configuration of today's family unit. "High levels of divorce and postponement of first marriage are among the changes." More unmarried and same-sex couples live together. Twice as many children are now living with one parent.

As long as this laundry list of problems is, we could add others: care of the elderly, prison over-crowding, personal and corporate bankruptcy, public education quality, genetic engineering, health care cost control and more.

The magnitude and velocity of change boggles the mind. Today brings a totally new set of challenges and opportunities for humankind. No question, God has uniquely prepared women to be yoked along with men to be His emissaries in a very needy world.

NEXT LEVEL OF INVOLVEMENT EQUAL PARTNERSHIP

The game is heating up. The players in the game are courageously struggling against formidable odds. Younger team members are warming up, but the first possible time they can enter the game is still uncertain. It seems strange, but a large part of the team is still in the dugout more than half the team, as a matter of fact. They cheer and keep the crowd apprised of the game statistics, and seem to be passionately interested in the game. But why doesn't the coach get them in the game? Are they on the team or not?

We women wear the uniform and attend the workouts but few of us play in the game. Not because we are not capable, not dedicated, not eager to play, but, because--. Men in the past have thought women to be incompetent, condemned to be under the domination of men, paying the debt for Eve's sin. Others have seen us as a treasure to be preserved, a fragile thing to be protected. As women we have been timid to step up to the plate, unwilling to be considered contentious or to break out of our subservient role. Today, however, the need for a united effort of men and women is urgent. We know ourselves to be ready for service, not fragile or inept, but committed to the tasks given to the Church--a task challenging enough for a whole team effort. Women alone are not able, any more than men alone, to shoulder the problems of our day. Some men speak of the danger of a "takeover" by women. They worry about the competition women will bring. A man friend teasingly once told me, "Women don't play fair. They always get to the meeting on time, have all their materials ready at hand, and make well thought out contributions." A pastor at another time said, "I like women. Why, some of my best men are women." Certainly history has brought massive change in our relationships with men.

Women were last at the cross, first at the tomb and first to encounter the living Christ. Throughout Christ's ministry they worked behind the scenes to advance his work. Never seeking recognition, they also never shirked the task. Even at the cross they agonized with Christ's mother. And when they appeared at the burial site to prepare his body, a woman's job, he honored their faithfulness by his appearance.

Two thousand years later another band of women, facing completely different circumstances, commit our loyalty to the risen Christ. He has gifted us with all necessary virtues for the task. 

We remind ourselves that the gift comes from the Father and is not of our own making:

"Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us: our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant," 2 Corinthians 3:5-6.

We thank God, therefore, for the competencies he places within us, and submit them to his use. May we find new strength for these new days in our partnership with him.

  September 2001