Letters October 2015

Knowing where to stand

First and foremost, I want to say I’m thrilled that we are talking about feminism in relation to faith (“Storming the old boys’ club”, September 2015, page six). But I must stress the importance of understanding our movement in order to speak with authority on it. We don’t need to be experts, but making errors on the fundamentals (like calling the second wave liberal—that’s the third wave) and distancing ourselves from those second-wavers who made huge political gains for us, are trends we could really do without.

Understanding how feminism worked in the past, how it works today, its strengths, its weaknesses, and the parts we individually embrace or reject, is vital to the future of our movement.

Because above all, feminism is a political movement for the liberation of women—and in a time where there are so many differences of opinion on what that means we need to know where we stand, both as Christians and as feminists.

Rebecca Nixon
London, United Kingdom