Biblical womanhood is a movement within

evangelical Christianity Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

, particularly in the United States. It adopts a

complementarian Complementarianism is a theological view in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but ''complementary'' roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. The word "complementary" and it ...

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...

view of gender roles, and emphasizes passages such as Titus 2 in describing what Christian women should be like. According to author

Rachel Held Evans Rachel Held Evans (née Rachel Grace Held; June 8, 1981 – May 4, 2019) was an American Christian columnist, blogger and author. Her book ''A Year of Biblical Womanhood'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller in e-book non-fiction, and ''Searchi ...

, it is driven by the conviction that "the virtuous woman serves primarily from the home as a submissive wife, diligent homemaker, and loving mother." Institutions supporting the movement include

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Louisville, Kentucky. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at ...

and

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is a Baptist theological institute in Fort Worth, Texas. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It was established in 1908 and is one of the largest seminaries in the world. It i ...

, while organizations associated with the movement include the

Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) is an evangelical Christian organization promoting a complementarian view of gender issues. According to its website, the "mission of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is to set fort ...

. Notable writers include

Nancy Leigh DeMoss Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth (born September 3, 1958), also known as Nancy Leigh DeMoss, is a bible teacher and public speaker. In 2015, DeMoss married best-selling author and a former president of Thomas Nelson Publishers Robert Wolgemuth. References ...

, Dorothy Patterson,

Elisabeth Elliot __NOTOC__ Elisabeth Elliot (née Howard; December 21, 1926 – June 15, 2015) was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca people (now known as Hu ...

, and

Priscilla Shirer Priscilla Shirer (born December 31, 1974) is an American author, motivational speaker, actress, and Christian media personality, and evangelist. Her father is Dallas mega-church pastor Tony Evans and her brother is musician Anthony Evans. Retri ...

Edith Schaeffer Edith Rachel Merritt Schaeffer (née Seville) (November 3, 1914 – March 30, 2013) was a Christian author and co-founder of L'Abri, a Christian organization which hosts guests. She was the wife of Francis Schaeffer, and the mother of Frank Schae ...

's 1971 book, ''The Hidden Art of Homemaking'', has been described as "perhaps unintentionally, a landmark book for proponents of biblical womanhood." Held Evans suggests that "biblical" is a loaded term, and argues that adherents have "refused to acknowledge" that their interpretation involves a "certain degree of selectivity". Advocates caution that "most women in Third World countries... would find our American, evangelical stereotype of biblical womanhood completely foreign and often simply physically impossible." Some conservative Christian women have critiqued Evans's interpretation for undermining faith in

biblical inerrancy Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible "is without error or fault in all its teaching"; or, at least, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact". Some equate inerrancy with biblical i ...

. In 2010, historian

Molly Worthen Molly Worthen (born 1981) is a journalist and historian of American religion. Raised in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, she graduated from Yale in 2003 and earned a Ph.D. in American religious history there in 2011. She is a contributing opinion writer for ...

wrote that Biblical womanhood' is a tightrope walk between the fiats of old-time religion and the facts of modern culture, and evangelicals themselves do not know where it might lead."

References

{{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States Christianity and women Christian movements Complementarianism

See also

References