Inadvertent Feminists

I've watched and listened to this speech four times in the last two days.  Each time I do, I cry.

In the last months, I have found myself more and more drawn to not only to issues of gender inequality, but also to what type of world our young girls will grow up in.  On Netflix, I've watched documentaries titled Miss Representation and Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines and Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada.

In the last months, I've found myself evaluating movies and tv shows based on the Bechdel Test.  I've found myself becoming increasingly uncomfortable with music that promotes unhealthy relationships between the genders.

The Bechdel Test

I've found myself musing on what sort of world my nieces and nephews will grow up in when my sister and brother-in-law decide to start having kids.  Because right now, its a world where women must fear that nude pictures of them are leaked.  It's a world where men will always make more money than women.  It's a world where a government attempts to legislate how, if, and when a woman may take birth control.  Because, right now, it continues to be a man's world. We live in a world where girls are told they can't.

I've found myself thinking about the inadvertent feminists in my own life.

I come from a family made up of four women and one male.  My dad always jokes that he was a martyr when we were growing up, the only male in a house full of women.  In reality, though, we grew up in a house run by two feminists.  My mom was a stay-at-home mom until my sisters and I were old enough to go back to school, and my dad has worked as a pastor for as long as I can remember.   The thing that sticks with my twenty-eight year old self is that they never told us we couldn't.

This week, I've officially entered into the candidacy process for the CRCNA.  I'm working toward ordination - a young woman entering a profession that is notoriously masculine.  As I leaving my current job with it's "director" title and move toward new job possibilities with their "Reverend" title, it strikes me all that more that I'm a female.

Suddenly I'm thinking about areas of the country where my Christian denomination isn't okay with women taking up roles of authority.  Suddenly I'm thinking about whether or not I'd be able to successfully co-pastor a church with an older male.  Suddenly I'm wondering if people will not partake in the Lord's Supper because they believe someone of my gender should not serve it.  It seems I'm always thinking about something that is related to how people will receive me because of my gender.
But then I remember, my parents never told me I couldn't.  My father is my biggest advocate as I enter into ministry, and my mother is my biggest support.

I want my future nieces and nephews to grow up in a world that tells each of them they can, equally.