Recently, I was delighted to see that one of Bombay's evening papers, The Afternoon Despatch and Courier, was carrying an extra edition called "Woman's Extra." For two weeks, they profiled twelve women: six international figures, and six national ones. The series was partly biographical, but it was also a celebration of the women's accomplishments. As this extra edition shows, there's a growing recognition that women have something to offer—something that goes deeper than the excellence these particular women are exhibiting in their areas of expertise.
I believe this "something" is the best of feminity, the qualities of gentleness, purity, love, discernment, and so on. In a world where masculine qualities such as strength and courage have long been celebrated, it's wonderful to see this acknowledgment of the value of womanhood. The qualities often associated with women aren't simply a nice addition to the qualities exhibited by their male counterparts. They're essential ingredients for a productive, peaceful, wellfunctioning world. The chairman of the Times of India once remarked that unless women come forward, the world will never attain peace. To me, this shows a growing awareness of the need for that balance between power and humility—or, in other terms, the balance between the masculine and the feminine.
In my prayers for the women of India and of the world, I love to focus on this idea of balance. In Genesis the Bible says, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Gen. 1 :27. To me this means that balance is a natural part of God's creation, that the masculine cannot exist without the feminine, and vice versa. To be made in God's image, then, is to live as the expression of courage and humility, of intelligence and intuition. Seeing creation in this perfect balance shifts the recent focus on women from a societal or cultural trend to a natural, spiritual progression.
These ideas proved helpful a number of years ago when I was working as a junior secretary for an international bank. Over time, I was given more responsibilities, but though I kept receiving good reports at my annual reviews, there was no additional pay. I didn't really care about the money per se, it was more the principle of the situation. I couldn't understand why I was being held back. Even a friend of mine, who was a senior manager at the bank, couldn't explain it.
I decided that the only solution was to pray. Not to pray that I'd get a raise, but to see how God was viewing the situation and what I could learn from His view. As I did, that idea of "male and female created he them," came to mind. I realized that I couldn't lack anything because I was a woman. In fact, I saw for the first time that I wasn't just representing the womanhood of God; I was also representing the manhood of God. The fact that I possessed this union of masculine and feminine qualities meant that I couldn't be subject to discrimination. As the child of God, I had equal rights and privileges.
It also came to me to include the men in my office in my prayers. And the more I looked to see the best of manhood—and womanhood—in each of my colleagues, the more certain I became that we were all of these, complete, and therefore equal, in the eyes of God—and that this could be realized in practical ways. Before long, whatever had stood in the way of my advancement as a woman in that office—be it jealousy, indifference, or a feeling of superiority—just evaporated. After that, I did get promotions with accompanying pay raises.
I've thought about completeness many times since then, including once when I did some volunteer work with women in Rajasthan, in the north of India. These women live in a totally male-dominated society and have been given no educational opportunities whatsoever. They can't read or write. They don't even know how to sign their own names.
One woman started a group for these women, a group called Jagran Jan Vikas Smiti, which in part means "awakening," and she asked me if I would come visit them. It was difficult at first. The women cover their heads and faces, and even their eyes are barely visible. I wondered about their sense of identity, and so I prayed to see that God had given each of them a spiritual identity that could never be taken away. And that that identity was complete—not lacking in confidence, strength, or understanding.
The story of Adam and Eve, as told by the second chapter of Genesis, would challenge this view of a complete, perfect creation. The making of woman is described this way: "she shall be called Woman," Adam says, "because she was taken out of Man." Gen. 2:23. But Genesis I has already presented man and woman as created in God's image. What's going on here? Scholarly evidence indicates that "there are clear evidences of two distinct documents in the early part of the book of Genesis."Science and Health, p. 523. As Mary Baker Eddy explained it, one document, or account of creation (Gen., chap. 1), presents the "truth of the divine creation" or a spiritual view of creation, while the other (beginning with Gen. 2:4) offers a "mortal and material" view.Ibid., p. 521.
In my work with the women of Rajasthan, I found it so important to focus on the Genesis 1 account of creation. To see that woman, or the feminine qualities, had never been "taken out of," or removed, from man.
So long as I viewed either these women or their husbands as incomplete in some way, as capable of being victims or victimizers, a change in circumstances would be out of the question. But building my volunteer work on the foundation of the truth of God's creation as explained in the first chapter of Genesis, I found I could connect with these women and speak to them in ways that they could understand.
In the end, my prayers to see that each person in that village had all of what he or she needed, not half, contributed to a small but significant change. It came to me to teach these women how to sign their names as a way of giving them a sense of identity — and some legal rights. I couldn't stay to teach them. But a man from their own village came forward and offered to help. And I found out later that he followed through on his promise. This was such a wonderful proof to me that neither men nor women can be subject to false views about creation. That both sexes are free to express the best of masculinity and femininity. The natural effect of this is that the value of women is being recognized and drawn out.
More than a hundred years ago, a pioneering woman named Mary Baker Eddy glimpsed this trend in thought and remarked, "This is woman's hour . ..." No and Yes, p. 45. Now, as I look at the media — and at the community in which I live — I see that she was right. There is a yearning to see more purity, more gentleness, more humility in our society, to bring those qualities out in our leaders, our role models, and ourselves. And slowly but surely, this yearning is being translated into action. The womanhood of God is finding expression in all facets of life.
TODAY, as India and countries around the world confront a variety of women's issues, like prostitution, treating women as objects, and a general loss of innocence, I'm strengthened by the promise that "this is woman's hour," that the qualities associated with femininity cannot be oppressed, denigrated, or defiled. As we defend the innocence and purity of women — and of the people who would exploit them — it becomes clear that masculine and feminine qualities exist in perfect balance in every identity. As Mrs. Eddy put it, "The centuries break, the earth-bound wake, / God's glorified!" Christian Science Hymnal, No. 160. The completeness of God is being glorified, and the slow but steady emergence of woman in all parts of the world is proof of this.
