Why Settle for Equality?

The Privilege of being a Woman

“Nothing can ever overcome that one enormous sex superiority, that even the male child is born closer to his mother than to his father. No one, staring at that frightful female privilege, can quite believe in equality of the sexes.”

~G.K. Chesterton - The Higher Anarchy, What’s Wrong with the World

Photo by Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales on Unsplash

The fight for equality between the sexes was, in Chesterton’s estimation, the modern surrender of woman. I agree with him, but it took a long time for me to see what exactly he meant by this and what exactly was going on in our culture to limit women to such a restrictive goal.

Growing up, I was told that women were “breaking glass ceilings” and finally achieving freedom by rising to positions previously only held by men. I truly believed my liberation would be found by rising up the corporate or academic ladder and fulfilling my potential in the workplace.

Fertility, for a girl born in the 70s, was something to be controlled and even eliminated through chemical sterilization until it was eventually needed. It was an extra, mostly inconvenient, aspect of the female body. A curse, if you will. Something to be dealt with, and definitely an impediment to the higher aims of life – a fulfilling career, financial success, and self fulfillment.

This lie – that female fertility is a disease to be treated – this complete abdication – is at the heart of the crisis of culture we have today. Women have always had inestimable power. We have had this frightful and awesome ability to participate in the creation of new life. This power has always been and will always be the most important distinction between the sexes. The ability to bring forth new life is far and away the human function which most closely participates in the divine life. We cooperate with God to bring new eternal souls into the world within our very bodies.

Women are not defective men – we have certainly moved beyond Aristotle in our view on women. Men can have sex without the possibility of becoming pregnant – true. Why would women want to emulate that? The unique privilege of being able to nurture life from its earliest and most vulnerable stage is an incredible role and responsibility.

Women exercise their greatest power when they participate in the creation and nurturing of new souls. While it is not every woman’s call to be a physical mother, it is a very great power. Of course women can do many things that men can do. We can earn a wage, or build a house, or even become the chief of staff of the White House. If, however, we cast aside the most important role in our life, that of mother, to do those things which men can also do, we have abdicated our real power, for a diminished and narrow subset of our potential.

Women have been sold a lie. Our fertility is not a disease to be treated, but our most amazing superpower. This doesn’t mean that we can’t do things that men can also do, but that we must never forget who we are, and why we are different. We must reclaim our privileged position by rejecting the idea that men are somehow superior and should be emulated.

Men play their part by refusing to create an artificial dichotomy. A real man honors the women in his life, and is not afraid to see the beauty in their “frightful female privilege,” but to honor it, protect it, and allow it to flourish for the good of everyone in society.