What's Right with Feminism

Storkey writes not for the feminist but for the non-feminist, seeking to convince her audience that feminists do have legitimate points and, further, that feminism ('mere' feminism, you might call it) is not incompatible with what the Bible says about women. The book is divided into 4 parts. The first is called 'The Feminist Case;' here Storkey outlines (with the aid of many statistics) discrimination against women at work in general, in the professions specifically, in schools and colleges, in the Church, legal discrimination, and the treatment of wives and mothers. Little of this will be new to the confirmed feminist (except possibly Storkey's focus on the situation in England), but to those who do not know much or care much about such things, these chapters will be something of an eye-opener. Having forced the reader to acknowledge that feminsts have some points, Storkey in part 2, 'The Feminist Diagnosis,' outlines three major schools of feminist thought, showing the strengths of each before pointing out their weaknesses. Next she moves to 'Some Christian Responses,' which are frequently either antagonistic or overly enthusiastic--feminism is either castigated or embraced so completely as to cause the embracer to denigrate Christianity. Finally, Storkey pulls out the card she's been hiding behind her back and presents 'A Third Way;' Biblical Christian Feminism, she calls it. She sketches a history of feminism, showing that early feminists held much the same position as she is advocating, and then moves into a discussion of the Bible, pointing out feminine images of God that are usually bypassed, calling into question common interpretations of certain passages, and describing Jesus's attitude towards women and comparing it to that common among Jews of the time. Storkey's intended audience is limited but large, and she succeeds excellently in presenting feminism to a possibly hostile Christian audience. Her lucid explanations are structured carefully so as to appeal to and persuade her listeners, and they succeed well; in fact, I began the book in just such a hostile mood and finished it converted.