I grew up in a close family who participated in a Christian Science Church and Sunday School, so from a very young age I learned of Mary Baker Eddy’s lifework: her discovery of Christian Science, writing a book (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures), and founding a church. As a young girl I was so struck by all that she had accomplished as a 19th-century woman.
As I grew up and started exploring her writings more, and also biographies about her, I began to see that maybe in some small way I, too, could start to follow her example and try to express the spiritual ideas of womanhood that she had explained and lived herself. As a woman, I so loved her explanation of God as both our Mother and our Father.
In my early career as a chartered surveyor in the United Kingdom, at one point I was one of less than ten women practicing in the city where I lived. Male stereotypical attitudes seemed to be prevalent. But I was learning that for me it wasn’t enough to respond from a secular feminist perspective. Rather I wanted to try and understand more deeply Mrs. Eddy’s comments such as, “man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God” (Science and Health, p. 516). I found that as I understood more clearly this spiritual basis of equality, it naturally translated into my day-to-day activities, with male colleagues treating me with respect and as an equal.
