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Good morning. If sociologists are to be believed, then we are living through now the fourth wave of feminism. The first focused on the right to vote in the first half of the 20th century, and the second wave, designed to free women from enforced domesticity, was instigated by Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique, which was published 58 years ago today. Talking about the situation mostly of white women in America and the West, Betty Friedan challenged the idealising of women’s role as homemaker. In her provocative book, she encouraged women to ask themselves ‘is this all there is’? Friedan was clear that women could and should have space and time of their own to think, study, create and work outside the regular duties associated with keeping a house clean and a family fed. For many women this desire has come true, but for too many in 2021 it is still a distant dream.

Religions, not least Christianity, have a chequered history when it comes to the autonomy of women. But Christ came, as Scriptures says, that everyone may be able to live an abundant life. A full life, with the potential to find our own voice, creativity and love of living itself. Betty Friedan’s challenge echoes today not just in the many more freedoms that women do have, but in the new questions of gender identity that are emerging as we discover more and more about the variety of human beings made in the image of God.

God who made us and remakes us every new day. Give us the courage to speak out the truth that is in us, that our words and actions today may be a source of abundance and freedom for others tomorrow. Amen.