A brief description of, on the one hand, the plight of women in certain regions, and on the other, the great strides being attained by women. This is merely an impetus to do further reading.

1. Women in the World
Including a look into the ancient Church
Brett Provance

2. Half the Sky
“More than 100 million women are missing”
• Problem: “Rath’s saga offers a glimpse of the
brutality inflicted routinely on women and
girls in much of the world, a malignancy that is
slowly gaining recognition as one of the
paramount human rights problems of this
century” (xiii).
• Neglect: “Thirty-nine thousand baby girls die
annually in China because parents don’t give
them the same medical care and attention
that boys receive – and that is just in the first
year of life” (xiv).

3. Half the Sky
• “[I]n places where girls have a deeply unequal status, they vanish” (xv).
– The Good Earth
• “Every year, at least another 2 million girls worldwide disappear
because of gender discrimination” (xv).
– Globally, “more than one in six undergoes rape or attempted rape at some point
in her life” (xvi).

4. “And God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them”
Genesis 1:27

5. Women in Earliest Christianity
• Christianity arose in the Hellenistic-Roman super-culture, with its biases among the
cultural elite.
• Paul and Women in Ministry
– Galatians 3:28: Declaration of equality within the sphere of the new creation
– Romans 16:7 : Junia, wife of Andronicus, who, with her husband, is called an apostle
– 1 Corinthians 1:11: Chloe, a church leader (household)
– Philippians 4:2-3: Euodia and Syntyche called co-contestants and workers by Paul
– Lydia (Acts 16:14, 40): household leader
– Mary, the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:12): household
– All the women mentioned in Romans 16 (incl. Phoebe, the deacon)
– 1 Corinthians 7 would seem to give women a way of choosing whether to marry or not,
for a purpose aside from the “symbolic”
– Carolyn Osiek: “I . . . think it correct to surmise that in [certain] cases these women
hosted formal dinners and presided at them, including the assembly of the [ecclesia]. The
sources would understandably be silent about this, not wanting to encourage more of it.”
• Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews:
– Perhaps Priscilla and Aquila (also called Prisca)?
• Teachers of Apollos (Acts 18:26)
• House churches in Rome (Rom 16:3-5) and Ephesus (1 Cor 16:19)
• Priscilla is always given preeminence in relation to her husband (cf. Western text at Acts 18:26)

6. Ancient Christians:
In the main, not a community of affluent people
• It is difficult to imagine that the Industrial Age-Victorian view of the family was
anything close to the norm in the ancient Church.
– Most Christians were poor (incense was important); many lived in tenement dwellings (no
kitchens or “bathrooms”); these are the people hearing the Gospel (“Blessed are the poor
. . .”)
– Life expectancy: 17.6 years (men) and 19.2 years (women) (important study)
– Emperors gave tax-breaks to women who bore a certain number of children.
• Slavery
– About 25% of the Roman population was slave
• Gaining freedom was not a baseless hope
– Many slaves became Christians
– In his epistle to Philemon, Paul seems to advocate the manumission of Onesimus
– In Romans 16:22-23 is mentioned Paul’s secretary Tertius (“Number Three”) and another
person named Quartus (“Number Four”): These are likely slave names
– Some slaves were educated (note Tertius above)
– A number of slaves held advanced positions in the churches (because they could read),
e.g., Callixtus at Rome, who gave his name to the catacomb section with the Crypt of the
Popes

7. Half the Sky
• “Women aren’t the problem but the solution” (xviii)
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-26/women-are-face-indias-mars-mission-theyre-still-exception

8. Half the Sky
• “Women’s empowerment helps raise economic productivity and reduce
infant mortality. It contributes to improved health and nutrition. It
increases the chances of education for the next generation” (xx).
• “Some security experts noted that the countries that nurture terrorists
are disproportionally those where women are marginalized” (xxi).

9. Women today
• The New Girl Order
• “Women are outperforming
men in school and entry-
level jobs even in such
places as South Korea,
Poland, and China. Why?
These countries never had a
vocal feminist movement –
but they do have a growing
knowledge sector” (13).
• 58% of college graduates
are women