| When Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson said “I’m not a biologist” after being asked to define woman, many conservatives claimed that Jackson had clearly revealed herself to be problematically progressive. After all, everyone is able to define woman, right?
Hannah Anderson isn’t so sure. Reflecting on the history of conservative definitions of woman, she notes that they have often amounted to “whatever is not a man” rather than being rooted in the imago Dei.
Anderson urges us not to react with volatility to statements like Jackson’s or to the rapidly changing conversation around gender in society. Instead, she writes, “principled leaders need to carefully consider how they respond to this moment. They must identify the true loci of the debate and avoid perpetuating the conditions that created it—including our failure to honor the humanity of women.”
But what about those of us who don’t see ourselves as leaders? What about those of us who are simply trying to navigate a world that seems to look different every day? Anderson has a word of encouragement for us, too.
“While you may think the answer to ‘Who is a woman?’ is a simple one,” she writes, “your neighbor increasingly does not. Living at peace with all people means learning to navigate such differences with grace and truth, affirming the humanity not simply of those who agree with us but also of those who disagree.”
Let us begin our answers to the question “who is a woman?” not with political fear, but with purposeful foundations rooted in our belief that all are created in the image of God. |
