Be What You Are – Part 5

Playing Your Role (part 2 of 2)

 

“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”—Genesis 3:16

 

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife…”—Ephesians 5:22-23

 

Former Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers created a firestorm of controversy in January 2005 when he speculated out loud to a mixed group of scientists that the reason why more women don’t occupy positions in math and science departments could “stem from biological distinctions between the sexes.” Another of his considerations was that most women play the role of wife, and mother to children, thereby limiting the amount of time they can dedicate to their work.[1] Summers resigned as Harvard’s president on February 21, 2006.

 

University professors, like the ones who pounced on Summers’s comments, would like to convince us that differences in male and female roles can be traced to cultural tradition. As we will see, the female role of wife and mother is a biblical pattern not a societal trap.

 

The Function of Distinct Roles: Female

Just as the male role can be described with the words leader and provider, the female role can be described with the words helper and caregiver.

 

Female as the Helper

The whole creation of the woman surrounds the search for a suitable helper (“a help meet”) for Adam.

 

“… but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him…. And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”—Genesis 2:20, 22

 

Adam could not fulfill God’s intended purpose for mankind by himself. No member of the animal kingdom was compatible. Another male would not have sufficed. It was the woman who fulfilled this role of a helper “meet [fitting, suitable]” for Adam. The New Testament reaffirms this connection for the female role:

 

“For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.”—I Corinthians 11:8-9

 

The female role is that of helper, especially in relation to a male. According to the Bible, a female fulfills her God-given responsibility by submitting to the headship of the male, and by assisting him in carrying out God’s Creation mandate. In this way she is a helper.

 

This is a great paradox: male/female equality and male headship/female submission. Man and woman are equal as human beings, but they are not equal in their role. Feminists wrongly assume that the submissive role equals inferiority. But a woman is no more inferior in her role as helper than God is when He fulfills the role of Helper in our lives, or Jesus Who “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister” was in His.

 

Female as the Caregiver

The curses of Genesis 3 make clear God’s original intent for each gender.

 

“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”—Genesis 3:16

 

In God’s directive to the woman, he makes plain that her responsibility was that of a wife and mother. Her suitability for the male corresponds to her being a wife (Genesis 2:20-25). Her bearing the children correlates to her tending the children. The female’s primary arena is the home, and consequently the care of children (I Timothy 5:14; Titus 2:4-5).

 

So, what about Proverbs 31? Isn’t that a working woman? Yes, but the caregiver aspect of the female role does not prohibit working outside the home. In fact, the Proverbs 31 passage has the woman’s responsibility to her family fully in view.

 

“She will do him [her husband] good and not evil all the days of her life.”—Proverbs 31:12

 

“She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.”—Proverbs 31:21

 

“She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.”—Proverbs 31:27-28

 

The Proverbs 31 woman has a virtuous character, in part, because she faithfully fulfills her role as caregiver to her family.[2] The central question is How does working outside the home contribute to the fulfilling of her role as caregiver to her family?

 

We must also understand that the Creative intent for woman as helper/caregiver applies to the female gender. Even Lawrence Summers (mentioned above) relayed the story of his daughter who, when given two trucks for her playtime, imagined one as “Daddy” truck and the other as “Baby” truck![3] The giving of care is naturally expressed by the female.

 

Whereas a man’s mistreatment of women and children contradicts his role as leader/provider, a woman’s disrespect toward a man and the neglect of children contradicts her role as helper/caregiver. Though, as with the male, age and marital status will dictate how it is practically carried out, the female role is that of a helper/caregiver.