March is Women's History-Herstory Month

 

March is Women’s History Month

March is women’s history (herstory) month. For centuries, women have been ignored, underappreciated and forgotten by too many men who occupied positions of power. Thus it is appropriate, and long overdue, that women be recognised, respected, honoured and appreciated for their many contributions to the church and society. Therefore, in this post, I’d like to highlight three women of the church who have made significant biblical and theological contributions whom you may or may not be familiar with, and whom I encourage you to either read online about online, and/or purchase their works, or borrow from a library.

Professor Doctor Eileen M. Schuller

Professor Doctor Eileen M. Schuller grew up and studied in Alberta, Canada, and received one of her degrees at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. She has studied and written extensively on the Dead Sea Scrolls. She received her Ph.D from Harvard University in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and has taught at Newman Theological College and St. Joseph's College in Edmonton, and the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax. Presently, she is a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton. She was the associate editor for The HarperCollins Study Bible, a joint project of HarperCollins Press and the Society of Biblical Literature (1990-1993). She was also an associate editor for the Dead Sea Scrolls Encyclopedia, Oxford University Press (1995-2000), the New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Abingdon (2003-2009), and The Paulist Biblical Commentary at Paulist Press (2013- ). Alongside Marie-Theres Wacker, Eileen M. Schuller was co-editor for a symposium (June 2015) and a volume in the series The Bible and Women: An Encyclopedia of Exegesis and Cultural History. For further information, visit this Wikipedia article.

Doctor Aruna Gnanadason

Doctor Gnanadason is a member of the church of South India, a theologian, and was executive secretary of the All India Council of Christian Women, and vice-moderator of the World Council of Churches’s Sub-unit on Women in Church and Society. She directed the global programme on Women in Church and Society of the World Council of Churches, Geneva and coordinated its programme on Justice, Peace and Creation (1991 till 2009). She holds a doctorate in ministries (DMin) in feminist theologies and a Master’s in English literature and has three honorary doctorates. She now lives in Chennai, India and resources the churches and the ecumenical movement in India and globally reflecting on the role, the challenge and the alternatives offered by the gospel in addressing the impact of patriarchy, caste and global capitalism on the people and the earth. Since returning to Chennai she has been active in the Indian Christian Women’s Movement – an informal movement of Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox women of which she presently is National Convener. Her most recent book, published in 2020, is With Courage and Compassion: Women and the Ecumenical Movement, available with her other publications on Amazon.

Doctor Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro

Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro is a Kenyan who has earned two doctorates: one from the University of Texas at Austin in linguistics, and the other in feminist theology from San Francisco Theological Seminary. She is also a human rights advocate, involved in a variety of organizations, including leading the Global Fund for Women for eight years. In her career, she has served with the Lutheran World Federation, worked as a Bible translation consultant, and served as a Hebrew and Old Testament visiting scholar at Harvard. She is also a member of the World Health Organization. Her research interests include gender issues, HIV/AIDS, among others. Her publications include Groaning in Faith: African women in the household of God (as a co-editor), Introducing Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics: An African Perspective, “Cultural Hermeneutics: An African contribution” in Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible, and “Engendered Communal Theology: African Women’s Contribution to Theology in the 21st Century.” For further information, visit this Wikipedia article.

Book Review: The Famous Five

The Famous Five: Canada’s Crusaders for Women’s Rights

Author: Barbara Smith

Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd.

138 pages, including: Prologue, Timeline, Acknowledgements, Notes, Bibliographical Essay And References, Index, paperback

Reviewed by Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

Most Canadians, I hope, have heard of the Famous Five. There are statues of them in Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa.

   These five women, although born and raised in various places, eventually all ended up living in Alberta. They were socially active and politically progressive for their time; which is a bit of an irony in that Alberta is one of the more conservative provinces in comparison with some of the others.

   Emily Murphy was perhaps the most outspoken of them, and regarded as the leader. Ironically, she was appointed as a judge, even though she was not trained as a lawyer. However, she did develop significant knowledge of the law and was most instrumental in getting the Persons Case to the Privy Counsel—which ruled that women were persons under the BNA Act, and hence entitled to the same political positions as men, including to sit in the Senate. Shortly after Lord Sankey’s ruling, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, in February 1939, appointed Cairine Wilson to the Senate. Emily Murphy, deeply desiring to be appointed to the Senate, was never chosen. It was not until 1979 however, that Alberta’s first female senator was appointed by Prime Minister Joe Clark, she was Martha Bielish. In 1979, to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Persons Case decision, October 18 is now observed as “Persons Day” in Canada.

   All five women Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby were committed advocates for women’s right to vote, more just legal rights for women concerning marriage, divorce, adoption, property rights, dower rights, protection of children, minimum wage agreements, widow’s allowances, and the temperance movement. Another woman and feminist who may be considered “the sixth member of the Famous Five” was Alice Jamieson, a Calgary judge.

   Of the five women, three were elected to Alberta’s legislative assembly—Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Nellie McClung. McKinney was the first female parliamentarian in the British Empire. Irene Parlby was reluctant to become involved in politics, yet she was a well-respected MLA from 1921 to 1935.

   Henrietta Muir Edwards helped in founding the National Council of Women of Canada, the Victorian Order of Nurses, and the Young Women’s Christian Association.

   Nellie McClung was the author of over a dozen books, went on travelling tours promoting them, a church elder, the only female delegate at the 1938 League of Nations convention in Geneva, Switzerland, and was appointed to the first board of directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

   There is, of course, a propensity to idealise people who are famous. However, according to Smith: “...the Famous Five were staunch supporters of eugenics.” (p. 101)

   Smith has provided readers with a valuable history of the Famous Five, her Bibliographical Essay and References are most helpful for those who would like to do further reading and research—including Books by the Famous Five.