Your Questions!
Why is gender equality important?
By centering ourselves in the biblical mandate of gender equality, we work with local churches across the globe in empowering women to lift themselves out of poverty.
Gender equality matters to us.
Firstly, because it matters to God. When God created humanity, he made them in his image.
This is significant. In other creation myths, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, humanity is created by accident during the wars of the gods. For humanity to bear God’s image, let alone women to share God’s image, was counter-cultural during the writing of the Bible’s creation narrative.
During his ministry on earth, Jesus crossed many boundaries to welcome women into the Kingdom of God.
In the first century, women were regarded as second class citizens and as the property of their husbands. Jesus went out of his way to address women in his teachings and daily interactions, something that his disciples were surprised by when we met the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:27). For Jesus to talk with a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman, was revolutionary during his time.
Jesus also addressed women in a way that was equal to how he addressed men in his time. In Luke 13:16, Jesus not only heals a disabled woman but calls her a ‘daughter of Abraham’. By using this term, he is reinforcing the spiritual equality they have in the Kingdom.
In Luke 8, the woman with the bleeding disorder touched Jesus and received immediate healing. Jesus calls her ‘daughter,’ as if she was his own child, a child of God.
It’s also important to understand that a woman who was menstruating couldn’t touch anyone, let alone be around anyone because of the purity laws of the Old Testament. This woman would have gone years without close human contact. Jesus welcomes her despite her condition, and heals her because of her faith.
These stories and countless others from the Bible show us that God truly cares about and empowers women. He sees them as being made in his own image. Throughout the New Testament we see women preaching and leading in churches such as Priscilla, Lydia, Phoebe and many others.
Secondly, we believe gender equality matters because it is crucial to ending extreme poverty.
Like many other relief and development organizations, we are working to eliminate poverty through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal number five is “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
Promoting gender equality helps improve economic development according to this report from the EU. UN Women recently reported that in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, half of the economic growth over the past 50 years is attributed to girls and women having better access to education and learning opportunities.
According to the UN, women invest up to 90% of their income into the needs of their families compared to the 35% that men invest into their families. This means that the more women who have work, the more families are likely to lift themselves from poverty.
But there are still strides we need to take to improve gender equality. There is still a gap between what men and women earn. Globally, women earn 81 cents to every dollar that is earned by a man. There are still 18 countries where men can legally tell their wives that they cannot work. Barriers to women generating income have resulted in $172 trillion in lost revenue according to the World Bank.
At Tearfund, we’re working to change this. Using our Church-Based Community Transformation model, we’ve seen thousands of women and their families uplifted from extreme poverty. Our local church partners implement teaching and programs that seek to uplift women and men from poverty.
Working with churches, we’ve created opportunities for women to join savings groups in order to start businesses and improve their livelihoods through Village Savings and Loans programs. As a community saves money together, they invest in each other’s needs and ideas for new businesses. This means that women are working together at the grassroots level to lift themselves from extreme poverty, using their own God-given talents and abilities.
We also work to address sexual and gender-based violence in countries where rape has been used as a weapon of war. We’ve even developed a curriculum for churches to help women overcome trauma called Hand in Hand.
