The Spiritual Risks of Feminism

Note: I’ve rewritten this post in the light of some of the comments below which made me think that I hadn’t expressed myself as well as I might have done. Possibly I still haven’t but the general point is that feminism, certainly in its more extreme forms, has spiritual risks which will affect women more than men.

It is evident that modern feminism is, at least in part, a rebellion against established order and power and an attempt to take a share of that power. But the established order was legitimate even if it was sometimes corrupt and so needed to be reformed rather than overturned.

The motive in this rebellion is often cited as a quest for equality but equality does not actually exist anywhere in nature. There is complementarity but in any complementary pair one tends to take precedence. In the male/female pair this is meant to be the male just as in the spirit/matter pair it is meant to be spirit. Let me emphasize this does not make man superior to woman. They are both human beings made in the image of God. Moreover in the case of any two individuals a woman can clearly be superior, in wisdom, intelligence or whatever it may be, even strength or leadership qualities, to a man. As a man may be to a woman even in such pre-eminently feminine qualities as beauty and compassion. But the general rule remains.

This precedence of the masculine does not mean that there are no areas in which the feminine has precedence. There very obviously are. That is the whole point of having two sexes and the meaning of complementarity. But overall leadership lies with the male as St Paul says when he makes the currently very unfashionable point that the man should be the head of the family. This is resented by some feminists but they are resenting truth. Their position is partially justified by the fact that men have undoubtedly abused their position of natural authority in the past but this does not alter its legitimacy. I have to repeat that reform is one thing but revolution quite another.

The upshot of all this is that now can be a spiritually perilous time to be a woman. For women see themselves as having the moral high ground with male evil widely recognised, and even exaggerated, while female evil is practically denied to exist. This can result in a dangerous sense of self-righteousness and pride with virtues magnified and vices ignored. The irony is that men are not so affected unless they abandon their masculine responsibility by adopting the feminist stance themselves but even then the actual spiritual risks are lower for them. They have at least, even if in a misconceived way, understood the need for justice and sacrifice.

An egalitarian feminist perspective often appears to be adopted by societies and civilizations that are in decline and have lost confidence and a sense of true mission (see Fate of Empires by Sir John Glubb, for example). It probably starts as a consequence of achievement with its accompanying wealth and security and then becomes a cause of decline as a safer mediocrity and average are promoted instead of the more threatening but more creative exceptional. We are plainly in that position now but I would like to think there are enough wise men and women to take a stand against it and work together for a true spiritual understanding that will benefit both the sexes. For if they don't the spiritual consequences could be serious. The danger of feminism is that what women gain, or think they do, in worldly terms will be more than counterbalanced by spiritual loss.