Category: Gender in academia

Best books on gender roles and equality?

Last week I wrote a post on “The top ten most difficult doctrinal/theological subjects that contemporary Christians need to address.” Today I want to invite readers to leave a comment recommending books on these topics that you have found to be helpful. The seventh item on my list was that of gender roles and equality about which I wrote:

While I am concerned about women having the freedom to serve in their church according to their calling this is just the tip of the iceberg. As we’ve seen in recent debates over contraceptives there is a great divide between many forms of conservative Christianity and women’s rights movements. While we could argue that abortion rights are a distinct matter I think it is fair to say that you can’t separate that subject from this one.

What is a book (or books) that you recommend for someone wanting to think through this subject?

Women at SBL 2011 (a sampler)

Deane Galbraith counted forty women from the first one hundred and thirty-seven presenters at SBL 2011 (see “Women at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting 2011″). That is 29%. I decided to take the count further so I went as far as five hundred presenters (+ or – a handful due to oversight). My count (+ or – 15ish) was 143/500. That is about 29%. If anyone does a more thorough investigation let me know. Also, it would be neat to know where AAR lands on the spectrum.

While some may not be pleased with the 7-3 man-to-woman ratio at SBL it sure beats the 99-1 of ETS. For more on this see Michael Bird’s plea for more women to become involved in ETS: “Woman, Thou art Loosed! Now Get ye Self to ETS!”