Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marx, and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

And today we're going to be doing all about the roles of men and women within relationships, and particularly the Christian viewpoints on this.

And for this, we're going to be using theology, but also the tools of social science to help us understand it.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of the lesson today, you'll be able to explain different Christian teachings and views on the roles of men and women.

So let's start with our key terms. Equality, belief that everyone is equal in value and worth.

Helper, translation of a Hebrew term "ezer," meaning someone who supports others.

Roles, the different jobs, responsibilities, or expectations that men and women may have in the family, home, or society.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections, the roles of men and women, and religious teachings on the roles of men and women.

So let's start with our first section, the roles of men and women.

Read these job titles and decide if you think they're stereotypically male or female jobs.

Firefighter, childminder, nurse, waste collector, airline pilot, and a beauty therapist.

Which of these do you think might be stereotypically male or female jobs? Pause the video and you could talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Well, why do you think these might become stereotyped? Did you think a firefighter was likely to be men? Did you think a nurse was likely to be a female? And what about a beauty therapist, would you think that that would tend to be a female or a male job? Why do we end up with these stereotypes around certain jobs? Pause the video again and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Perhaps it's because people from those different genders have tended to do those jobs in the past or it seems to fit with our idea of what it means to be male or female.

But of course, we know that men and women could be firefighters, childminders, nurses, et cetera, and anybody could do any of these jobs.

Andeep, Sofia, and Lucas, and Aisha are discussing this and why there might be different attitudes to the roles for men and women in society at large.

And Andeep says, "Well, some roles require strength, and biologically, men do tend to be stronger than most women." So maybe we have this sense they would do those stronger jobs.

Sofia says, "There's also an assumption that women are more caring and have more roles with children." So there's an assumption of that, isn't there? Lucas says, "The fact that women have children has impacted and sometimes limited the choices they've had." Because for that period of time, they might be off having, giving birth to the child and not able to come back to work immediately.

So sometimes, that's had an impact in the past.

And Aisha says, "The status and rights of women in the past has affected the opportunities they've received." So we haven't always had the kind of equal opportunities that we have today in the history of our civilization, have we? Well, let's look at that history of equality, particularly for women's rights in England then.

And we've got here a timeline stretching back from 1870 to towards the current day.

So it kind of covers a period of just over 100 years on this timeline.

In 1870, the Married Women's Property Act allowed married women to own their own property.

Now this is a right that had been granted in other cultures, much more in advance to this, but this happened in 1870 in England.

So before then, a woman didn't have her own property while she was married, it belonged to her husband.

So even if she was married and then got divorced, she still kept her property, and if she was then single or widowed.

So a married woman could have her own property.

It didn't automatically become the property of her husband.

And then in 1918, women over 30 were granted the right to vote in Britain.

So only if you're over 30.

So now we've got the age of voting as a 18, but this was a first step towards the suffrage or the women's rights to vote.

The Parliamentary Qualification of Women Act is passed, enabling women to stand as a Member of Parliament as well, so they can be part of the decision-making process for the country.

In 1923, the Matrimonial Causes Act came through and this allowed women to apply for divorce on the grounds of adultery.

Before that, only men could apply for divorce.

So even if the man who committed adultery, the woman would not be able to apply for a divorce.

So it's very difficult for women to access that right to divorce from a marriage.

And this changed in 1923.

So it's only just 100 years ago.

In 1929 was the first general election where all women aged over 18 were allowed to vote, which is the right that women have today.

In 1967, the Abortion Act decriminalised abortion on certain grounds and the contraceptive pill became available through family planning clinics.

So this was really important to do with equality for women and the rights that women have, which allowed for a woman to have sort of more control over whether she had children or not, which meant that she could perhaps prioritise her career if she wanted to at that time, and have more control over that rather than having to be there having children that were not necessarily the timing that she wanted for herself.

In 1970, the Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay women lower wages than men for the same work.

So think about what it was like before that.

So before 1970, a woman could be paid less just because she's a woman, not 'cause of the work she was doing, not because of how many hours she'd done, but purely by the fact that she was a woman.

This became against the law in 1970.

So that's a huge step in terms of equal rights women.

In 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act made it illegal to discriminate against women in work, education, and training.

So again, prior to that, perhaps an employer could say, "No, I want a man for this job, not a woman." Not based on who they were or their qualifications, or their experience, but just by the fact that she was a woman.

He could have said, "I'm not employing her" or "I'm not going to give her the same rights as my male employees." And so this was a really important step in that sense of equality.

And you can see how this has been a journey that we are travelling along towards the equality that we have and how that might influence why we think certain roles should be stereotypically male or female.

And then in 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister.

In 1980, women could apply for a loan or a credit card in their own name.

So before then, you couldn't even go to the bank as a woman and ask for a loan or a credit card, or have even your mortgage in your own name for your house.

So this is another really big important step in terms of women's equality.

And then in 1985, the Equal Pay Act allow women to be paid the same work for as men for the work of equal value.

So this kind of builds on the Sex Discrimination Act that came before.

So it's another kind of solidifying of that equal pay for women doing the same work that men are doing.

Let's do a quick check.

What protection did the 1985 Equal Pay Act give to women? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

They would be paid an equal amount for the work that they did.

If men did the same work, they would be paid an equal amount.

Well done.

And so if that is how equality has come through society at large and through the different laws, and the different regulations that have come in to give women equality in terms of voting and in terms of pay for any work done.

Well, how does this relate to in the home then, where you often have a man and a woman living together in the home as a family? When we look at tasks that are done in the home, we can also see a sort of division between who's more likely to do those different tasks.

And this is something sociologists are really interested in looking at and how that might have changed over time.

So let's have a think about some tasks that are part of living in a home, and imagine we've got a couple, male and a female.

Who do you think is more likely to do these tasks? We've got the weekly shop and then we've got repairs at home.

Who do you think is more likely to do these and why? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

And do you think that's changed over time? If you've said one gender or the other is likely to do the shop and repairs at home, do you think that's changed over time or is it remaining the same? Again, pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, let's have a look at what sociologists have found then.

So sociologists have studied this and seen how it's actually changed over time.

So the household shopping in 1984 was mainly done by the woman, 34% of the families who were surveyed, but it was shared equally 63%.

But can you see in 1984, there were no homes at all that had mainly the man doing that weekly shop.

And you can see over time that this has increased to being shared equally.

And we can see the shared equally has gone up dramatically to 82%, sort of, you know, the majority of houses are showing equally between the man and the woman if that's the couple that they have.

But you can see a decrease in it being mainly the woman and a slight increase in it being mainly the man.

So we can see a shift, a change in what's happening in the home here.

So why is this relatable for us to do Christianity and religious studies? Because we can see if there's a shift in the attitudes within religions as well, as to who should do certain roles within the home.

What can this data about British attitudes to household tasks tell us about those changes in attitudes then? Pause the video and have another look, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done.

We have the fact that it's more equally shared between the men and the women if that's the couple that you have in the household.

And we have an increase in it being the man and a decrease in it being mainly the woman.

Okay, so the second task we looked at was doing repairs in the household.

So what could this data about British attitudes to household tasks tell us about changes in attitudes then? So here we got household repairs.

Let's have a look.

So in 1984, the majority was done by the man, which is 78%.

It's just over three quarters there is done by the man, the household repairs.

And then that's gone down to 32% in the most recent data in 2022.

And again, we can see that increase in things being shared equally between the man and the woman.

Although we have also got a slight decrease in it being mainly the woman.

So that's an interesting piece of data there, isn't it? The percentage of men and women sharing household repairs has consistently risen but rarely completed mainly by the woman.

But we have got this idea of it being more shared equally.

Maybe this taps into the idea in society that men are stronger and more able to do these household repairs.

Let's do a quick check.

Which statement best describes research into the roles of men and women in the family? The role of men and women in the household has remained unchanged over time.

There has been an increase in households where tasks are shared equally And women no longer contribute to household tasks and men have taken the responsibility wholly.

Which of these best describes the data we were just looking at? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done.

It's B, isn't it? There's been an increase in households where tasks are shared equally.

Well done.

Let's do a quick practise task to see what we've learned then.

Andeep and Sofia are discussing the roles of men and women in today's society.

Develop each point that they give with a piece of evidence from social science.

Andeep says, "More tasks in the household is shared between men and women than before." And Sofia says, "Some tasks still got a significant minority showing that one sex has taken that role in the home." So you're going to develop each point that they give with a piece of evidence from the social science we were just looking at.

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done.

So good thinking there.

Andeep and Sofia were discussing the roles of men and women in today's society, and I asked you to develop each point that they give with a piece of evidence from social science.

And Andeep said, "More tasks in the household are shared between men and women than before.

For example, in 1984, 63% of couples shared equally the household shopping, and in 2022, it was 82%." And Sofia said, "Some tasks still have a significant minority showing that one sex has taken that role in the home.

For example, household repairs in 2022 was 32% of homes were still being done by the man." Well done.

So on to our second section then, religious teachings on the roles of men and women.

So if we're thinking about religious teachings, particularly Christianity, then we're going to look to the Bible as a really important source of authority for most Christians.

Bible is an important source of authority for all different Christians of different denominations, but the passages within it can be interpreted and sometimes translated in different ways depending on the Christian group or the Christian individual.

So here's a quotation that relates to gender roles, and it can be interpreted differently by Christians.

We've got here in Genesis 2, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him.

'" So some Christians would interpret this to mean that women were created to be men's helpers, meaning that men are superior to women, and women should do as men instruct and guide them.

So somebody's helper is subordinate to them.

One person might be, you know, if I'm the head chef in a restaurant, then I might have my helper chef who's cutting my vegetables for me and I'm instructing them and telling them what to do.

So somebody's our helper.

Does that mean that they are less than and inferior, and that the man is the one who should be making the decisions and telling them what to do? That's one way to interpret that passage, isn't it? But most Christians don't really interpret it in that way.

They would say that it means God made man and then he made woman.

So God makes man first, he says, "He can't be alone, he's not complete.

He can't live like this alone.

I'm going to make someone to be with him." And they're equal in the eyes of God, and so many women are equal to each other.

And so by making women as a helper, she's helping to complete the man, and they become equal as one.

And actually, that word helper also appears elsewhere in the Bible.

And even God is called a helper for humans.

And so no one would argue that calling God a helper means God is inferior or subordinate to man, is it? So we can see that that word helper can be interpreted in different ways.

So now, Lucas is going to ask Danielle, who's a Roman Catholic Christian, how do you interpret the passage that says woman was created as a helper for man? Danielle says, "I believe that men and women are equal, and made in the image of God.

There are different roles for men and women, though, and women can have important roles helping men as they lead the family and the church.

This is why the Bible says women were created as helpers for men.

It doesn't make them less important, but they do have different roles." Thank you, Danielle.

Let's do a quick check.

The term helper in Genesis means that men are superior to women today.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well done.

That's false, isn't it? But why? It's false because the term helper could be interpreted to mean men are superior to women, but could also be interpreted to mean that men needed a woman, showing that women are superior.

Most Christians interpret this to mean that men and women are equal.

Well done.

So staying in the Bible, which we've said is an important source of authority for all Christians, but can be interpreted in different ways.

We've got the writings of St.

Paul.

Now he was an early Christian writer from around the first century after Jesus.

And he has written many of the letters that have formed the books in the New Testament.

So he's quite an important source of authority for many Christian teachings and views, particularly through the roles of men and women.

He has had quite a great influence.

So let's have a look at what he says.

He says in a letter to Timothy, "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.

I do not permit a woman to teach or assume authority over a man.

She must be quiet." So this can be interpreted in different ways.

Christians might interpret this to mean women should not be in roles of authority over others.

For example, leaders.

And it also means that women should not be teachers and not teach in any context.

So for some, they might take this passage and say, "Well, a woman can't be teaching." A woman can't be teaching men.

A woman can't be teaching in the church.

A woman can't be preaching and sort of speaking in the church.

It says here she must be quiet.

And some Christian denominations do even have women being much quieter than men within their services if you look at a church, like for example, the exclusive brethren.

But many Christians interpret how long ago this was written and they say we should look at the broad principles that Paul has, rather than just take one line and sort of apply that to now.

We live in a different context.

This was written at a particular time to a particular context, and wasn't necessarily to be lifted and followed exactly like that today.

Women are equal today and they should have equal opportunities in all areas.

We have those other teachings about everyone being made in the image of God.

Now St.

Paul also writes in a letter to the Ephesians about the role of men and women within the homes.

Not just this idea of teaching and being quiet, but also within the home.

And Paul says this in Ephesians 5, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives submit to your own husbands as you do to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Saviour." Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by washing with water through the word and present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church, for we are members of his body.

So this passage again can have different interpretations of Paul's writing here about the roles of men and women within a family.

So Rachel's part of the Plymouth Brethren Church, and the Plymouth Brethren Church takes a quite a literal interpretation of many of these passages.

It said that they will have women remaining much more quiet within the church, for example.

And Rachel interprets it this way.

I interpret this to mean that men are the head of the household, so women should do what their husbands ask them to, and men should love their wives.

But Fergus interprets this in a different way.

He's a Liberal Anglican Christian, and he says, "If you read verse 21," so that was the very first verse, "It's clear that they should submit to one another." So here, it has this idea of men and women submitting to each other.

It then gives examples of what it might mean.

This means husbands and wives should both submit and both love each other.

So from one passage, we can have these different Christian interpretations.

So time for a quick check.

Is this true or false? In the Bible, Jesus says that men are the head of the household.

Is this true or false? Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you come up with in a moment.

That's right.

It is false, isn't it? But why? Because in the Bible, it's St.

Paul who says that men are the head of the household, not Jesus.

Well done.

So we had a good look at some social science data earlier to do with the roles of men and women within the home, but also social scientists have studied the views of religious people about the changing roles of men and women in the family.

One example is PEW research who asked religious people in the United States their opinion on more women joining the labour force.

So being able to earn their own money.

So the researchers asked religious people what they think about women joining the labour force.

So going out to work and not necessarily being in the home the whole time.

And the majority of all of the responders said it was a change for the better.

But there was some variation depending on the religious group the person was affiliated to.

So most people said, yeah, this is a change for the better that women can go and join the labour force, and all those things about women's rights in the workplace.

But there was some variation, and I wonder if you could think about what that might be.

So have a think about what variation there might be.

Why might there be indifference? Who might have said it was a better change and who might have said it wasn't necessarily a change for the better? Pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, here's the data.

This is the percentage of the people who responded to say it was a change for the better when women entered the labour force.

So we've got here atheists, Christian-Roman Catholic, Christian Orthodox, Christian Evangelical Protestants, and Christian mainstream Protestants.

So we've got different branches of Christianity and then we've also got the viewpoint of the atheist who answered.

And what can you notice from this data then? What variation does this data show us? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

The group that had the most number of respondents who said it was a change for the better is the atheist.

So even more than any of the Christian groups, the atheist felt it was a change for the better for women to be entering the labour force.

But within the Christian denominations, we've got here a variation.

The group that felt that it was a good change for the better the most was the mainstream Christian Protestants followed by Roman Catholics.

There's a slight difference there, but the biggest difference really is between mainstream Protestants and then evangelical Protestants.

So even within the Protestant churches where there's many different denominations, there is that difference here between people who feel it is a change for better and those who don't.

So perhaps those who felt it wasn't a change for the better wanted to see women remaining in the home more, perhaps looking after the children and doing those roles within the home.

So there is that difference between those two Christian groups there.

Let's do a quick check.

Which religious group had the highest percentage of respondents saying women joining the workforce was a change for the better? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done.

It was the mainstream Christian Protestants, closely followed by Roman Catholic though.

Now we can also think about Christian Orthodox here.

It isn't the lowest number of people who said that it's the change for the better, but it wasn't the highest either.

So within the Christian Orthodox faith, there is a difference in opinion here between whether it is a change for the better women entering the workforce.

So we can see that within a denomination, you could have different interpretations as well.

Sometimes there's the church position or the guidance, or a declaration, or an announcement that's made from a church on a particular view.

But obviously, within denominations, people have different views, too, with their own faith and their own conscience.

So here we've got Alexia and Andrew who are both part of the Orthodox tradition, but the household work in their families is shared slightly differently.

Alexia says, "My parents have traditional roles.

My mother runs the home including cooking and cleaning, and my father works and brings us money to live on.

We believe they're equal, but have different roles in God's eyes." And Andrew says, "My parents share the housework.

They go shopping together as a family and they're equal in God's eyes." So for both of them, the men and the women in the family are equal, but they may have a different view on how those different roles are divided within the family.

Let's have a quick check before we move on.

We've seen there can be different religious views on the roles of men and women in the home.

Let's together give the first of two Christian views about the roles of men and women in the home.

Hmm.

Women may have the role to care for children.

So over to you then.

Give the second of two Christian views about the roles of men and women in the home.

Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

I've got here, there's no specific roles for men and women in the home.

Well done.

So let's do another practise task to see what we've learned.

Here is a statement which we could write an evaluation question response to.

There are no special roles for men and women in the home.

I've got some points here and I want you to decide, do they support or go against that statement, and what evidence could be used for each? So here are my points.

Women are men's helpers.

Men can do the same roles as women in the family.

Men and women have a different role in the family.

And interpretations of biblical teaching may have changed over time.

Are these for or against the statement, and what's a piece of evidence you could use to support it? So pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some great thinking there.

So I gave you a statement.

There's no special roles for men and women in the home, and you had to decide whether the point supported it or went against it, and then give some supporting evidence.

And you could have said, women are men's helpers goes against the statement that there's no special roles.

And the evidence is that Genesis states that Adam needed a helper, so God created women.

Secondly, men can do the same roles as women in the family.

That could be for the statement because Paul said that men and women should submit to one another.

Thirdly, men and women have a different role in the family.

Again, that's against the statement, isn't it? And you could say that God created male and female bodies with different biological functions.

And then finally, interpretations of biblical teaching may have changed over time.

And that could be for the statement because the Bible was compiled 2,000 years ago and some of the contents may not reflect modern life.

Well done.

So let's summarise what we've done today then.

The roles of men and women in the home have become more equal over time.

There are some Christian teachings which could support separate roles for men and women.

There are some Christian teachings which could support the view that men have authority over women.

There are different Christian views on these teachings and on the roles of men and women in the home.

So well done for your hard work today, and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-bye.