The conventional wisdom is that Christianity reinforces the oppression of women.
Elizabeth Brusco, a feminist Marxist scholar conducted fieldwork in Columbia from 1982-1983, and found that pentecostal conversion transformed traditional gender relations by giving women a moral authority in the home to challenge their husbands’ drinking, gambling, or adultery.
She wrote up her findings in “The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Columbia” (1995).
Brusco wanted to find out, What happens to the macho value system when the husband converts to evangelical Protestantism?
The answer? He swears off the traditional masculine vices like drinking and partying most of the weekend and reintegrates himself into the household. He assumes the role of husband and father he may have neglected since the early days of his marriage and participates actively in the church community.
For many men, no longer having to maintain the facade of unrelieved masculinity and bravado is a great relief; the private world of household and loved ones is preferable to the public world of men. Brusco writes that, “In Colombia, machismo is, over the long run, very demanding and difficult for all under its sway, including the males who must perform this role” (p. 120).
Those changed male behaviors result in a radical reorientation of family consumption patterns. If formerly a goodly share of the husband’s income was diverted into wine, women, and song, that income is now channeled toward the welfare of the entire family.
Thus individual consumption by the father/husband turns into collective spending on a better diet and educating the children.
Another major shift takes place within the family, in the sphere of power relations between spouses. If the macho husband was characterized by drunkenness, infidelity, and even physical abuse of wife and children, the converted husband is pacific (appropriate New Testament behavior) and his attentions focused on his marriage and home life. Upon his conversion, however, he adopts a value system sharply at odds with the values prescribed for males by the dominant culture.
2 Comments
Hi, I am a Feminist Christian and wrote a response to this on my blog that I hope you will check out.
God bless!
http://www.dancingbackwards.com/2009/04/evangelical-protestantism-leads-to.html
Hi Francesca,
you wrote: [...] this is a faux-feminist finding.
But you don’t give any reason why this should be a faux finding (I can understand from your attitude and worldview that you dislike it – but that’s no reason)
Should the next sentences count as an argument in your eyes? You wrote:
“Being the keeper of morality in the household is a very traditional box women have been placed in for centuries.”
[...]
“And I see this sense of honor in many women who feel that being the gatekeeper of their husband’s morality is their duty. It’s by no means limited to Pentecostals, or even Christians for that matter.”
Your focus is on the women here, whereas Brusco asked: What did change within the men, after they became Pentecostal Christians?
Interestingly, your statement about the women is strongly affirming, what Brusco said. The conclusion I have to draw from your statements is this:
Women were always the gatekeepers of their husband’s morality – but without much success during the last centuries. But now, Pentecoastal Christianity comes along, and all of a sudden, the wifes are preaching to the choir!
Quod erat demonstrandum!
Thank you, Francesca, for the confirmation.
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[...] feminist Marxist scholar’s research in Colombia leads her to an un-Marxist conclusion: after evangelical conversion, husbands in a society dominated by a macho value system cut down on [...]