The Feminist Mistake: A scholarly, Christian evaluation of the feminist movement

Mary Kassian, author and professor at Southern Baptist Seminary (they allow women to be Professors there? ;) has just published a well-received evaluation of feminism entitled The Feminist Mistake: The Radical Impact of Feminism on Church and Culture.

You can read the CBMW's two part interview with Mary Kassian, as well as Tim Challies review at Amazon, in which he says:

The Feminist Mistake, by Mary Kassian traces the rise of feminism through the twentieth century. It shows how a movement at first designed to protect women's rights, soon morphed into a movement of incredibly destructive power - a movement that has ultimately caused great harm to society and to the church. "Looking back over the past fifty years is a sobering exercise. Feminism was the dream that promised women happiness and fulfillment. But I suspect ... we would find that women are unhappier and less fulfilled than ever. The feminist paradigm simply does not match the reality of who God created women and men to be. Hence it cannot deliver on its promise"

Comments

[Cineaste]

Feminism comes in many forms. For example, here is a Christian feminist who went crazy in a coffee shop.

Crazy Christian Lady Goes Nuts in a Coffee Shop

[Pendragon]

Professor Kassian mischaracterizes the goals of feminism. Feminism does not "promise women happiness and fulfillment." No civil rights movement can possibly promise such a thing and it is utterly unfair and misleading to require feminism to do so.

The point of feminism is to free women from legal and cultural restraints that automatically assign women or force women into a narrow or subservient role based on sex. Thanks to feminism, we have more freedom and options than before (although certainly there is a long way to go). Whether we find happiness, however, is our personal responsibility.

[seeker]

The point of feminism is to free women from legal and cultural restraints that automatically assign women or force women into a narrow or subservient role based on sex.

I agree with you, unless you think of motherhood or wifery as "subservient." While feminism was necessary and great, it got off track in many ways. I will post on this.