Mainstreaming Asian Feminism in Theological Education
Hope S. Antone

I would like to begin by sharing my experience of teaching an intensive course on "Feminist Theologies" for one-and-a-half months in a seminary in the Philippines in 2000. Interestingly, the course was required of all seminary students - so I had 40 students, mostly men, from all program levels (BTh, BRE, MDiv and MTh). On that first day of class, I could tell through the looks and questions of the students a sense of mistrust, suspicion, if not utter dislike for me, the course, or both.

I began the first session trying to get to know each other. I asked what they expected to get from the class and what they also expected to contribute. My sense of their mistrust, suspicion and dislike was confirmed through this exercise. I was thankful for their honesty and frankness. As they were required to take the course, and I was there to handle the course, we decided to make a covenant so as to make our short time together meaningful and worthwhile. Then I moved on to some questions of leveling off.

I invited them to share images that came to mind when they heard the words feminist, feminism, feminist theologizing and their responses were quire revealing. A summary of the men's replies is this:

Feminism is a movement began by women who are anti-men;

Feminist is associated with women who are unhappy in their marriage, are out to overturn the tables in order to lord over men, or are lesbians.

Feminist Theology is just another subject to take before students could graduate; yet, there is nothing in it for men as the name itself indicates.

Feminism is a distraction from the national struggle for genuine liberation.

Feminism is another Western imposition.

Feminism is not needed in the Philippines since women are already liberated and equal with men.

The few women who answered said:

Feminism is a movement for women's empowerment and liberation.

Feminism is a movement towards genuine equality and partnership of women and men.

Then, I asked them to recall an experience of discrimination they have had due to their sex or gender. Among the women's answers were:

They had to sacrifice for their families, whether as young children or as adults.

They have to bear many burdens as wife, housekeeper, mother, career woman, and now also as student.

From one who was a domestic helper in Singapore previously, there is greater discrimination of women migrant workers.

There were two answers from the men:

One said he did not qualify for a scholarship because he is a man.

Another said he sensed a preference for a girl in his family as he was growing up.

After appreciating their openness and frankness, I commented that indeed discrimination could be for any of the sexes or genders. But there is more widespread discrimination against women simply because of their being women. Also, in order to address and correct this matter, there are now attempts to bring about gender justice and that is why there are sometimes special scholarships set up for women.  I added that women's issues are often toned down by saying that the priority issue is national liberation from imperialism and global hegemonic power. But what kind of social order is it going to be where women and men fight side by side against imperialist forces outside the home but when they go home, women still have to be subservient and suppressed? Gender equality and gender justice should be integral to all other struggles for genuine freedom and peace. 

I dwelt on the assertion that Filipino women are already liberated, are equal with men, and therefore feminism was not necessary.  I recalled jokes that have been made to point to the same argument:

"Behind the success or fall of a man is a woman." 

"The man is the head but the woman is the neck that makes it move."

"The man is the general while the woman is the major.  He makes general decisions but she makes major decisions."

While there may be some truth to these sayings sometimes, the reality is that women, whether in the Philippines or in Asia as a whole, generally live sub-human lives.  There are many jokes or sayings that are very sexist and put women down. Women are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Just look at the prevailing preference for boys to girls. In other parts of Asia, this is grossly shown in the practice of female feticide or infanticide.  Women's suffering is a distortion of the image of God which has been given to both women and men. As long as there is gender inequality and discrimination, the image of God in both women and men is also distorted. Feminism affirms the image of God in both women and men.  

Another question I asked was what things made them happy or sad as boys/males or as girls/females. The men said that they were happy about the privileges and rights they enjoyed; but some were also sad that they could not cry, were expected to feel/think strong, had to be the ones to depend on, and to be breadwinners of the family. The women said they were happy about little courtesies they sometimes got (although some say these were now diminishing) and that they could wear jeans. They were sad about too many restrictions, a sense of threat to their sexuality, being not valued as full human beings, not able to enjoy the same privileges and rights as men/boys, and having to live up to many stereotyped expectations to be 'feminine', which means being passive, quiet or reticent.

So what do all these indicate? There are a lot of misconceptions/suspicions about feminism and feminist theologizing - what it is and what it is not. These are due to a lack of knowledge about it - a little knowledge of one stream of feminism is indeed a dangerous thing. In fact, as the course title itself indicated, feminist theology is not one- it should be "feminist theologies" to be accurate. And so, for this little if not distorted knowledge or understanding of feminism and feminist theologizing, some people simply have become allergic to the word and the movement. And yet, there are many women I know who are feminists and are happily married. They are actively involved in the movement because of their commitment to make this world a better place by working for genuine partnership between women and men. Also there are a number of men who are feminists - they support the struggles of women for equality and are committed to learning and working with women knowing that women's liberation is tied to men's liberation from this whole system called patriarchy (the thinking that the male is always the head or superior).

Following our covenant setting, our subsequent class sessions became very participatory and interesting. I decided to provide a quick survey with experiential exercises of the different streams of feminist theologizing � Western feminism, African American womanism, Latin American feminism and Mujerista theology, African, and Asian feminist theologizing (of course giving more time to the latter).  An exposure to these different streams of feminist theologizing enabled the students to understand the struggles of women (their close similarities and their differences) all over the world.  Only after the survey and the experiential exercises did we try to define feminist, feminism and feminist theologizing. 

Why Mainstream Feminist Theologizing

What I can conclude from my experience of teaching Feminist Theologies in that seminary is this: it is important to mainstream feminism in the curriculum of theological education. In fact, it is ideal to have it as one of the lenses through which every course is conducted. Imagine having a feminist perspective when reading and interpreting the Bible, doing theology-ethics, counseling, education, history, etc. But as long as teachers are not yet able to integrate it in their courses, it is important to offer it as a required course for all students.

Meanwhile, it is also important for teachers to be updated in this area. Sometimes, one big source of resistance are teachers who are just as allergic to feminism, which again is due to a limited if not distorted knowledge of the field. It is important that the allergy or aversion to feminism is dealt with openly and it can be done when students and teachers alike have exposure to the field.

There are other reasons why Asian feminism should be mainstreamed in theological education. I have qualified this as Asian feminism because we are aware that there are many streams of feminism and sometimes, especially for those of us who have studied in the West, the tendency is to simply pass on the Western streams of feminism. Of course, here in Asia, we have yet to find a common Asian term that would appropriately name what we are doing. But since we Asians still have to use the English language in order to understand each other, we can then go ahead and use feminism too, but qualifying what we are about as Asian feminism.

The following is a brief description of Asian feminism which I shared at the Conference to Evaluate Curriculum of Theology in Asia (CECTA) last December 2002.

Asian feminism is more than head knowledge of feminist theories. It is a life commitment to women's empowerment, genuine partnership of women and men, and total transformation of society. As such, feminist theologizing is experiential. It therefore means a certain perspective, mindset, and lifestyle.

Feminism is more than a language issue. In Asia, people (including women) can easily brush off the language issue by saying that many of our Asian languages and dialects are naturally non-sexist because we use neutral pronouns for both male and female sexes. Thus, some Asians claim that sexist language is a Western issue. But in fact, behind the language is the whole issue of mindset and perspective. So even if the language for God may be linguistically neutral, the mental image could still be that of a male God because of our patriarchal cultures. So work on language is important and there should be an accompanying task of dealing with nuances and meanings behind the language.

Asian feminism has to be very contextual. While we can learn from and contribute to conversations with feminists of the West, we must affirm our own kind or kinds of feminism which deal with our contextual realities of plurality, poverty, deep spirituality, and struggles for justice and peace. Asian feminists are also aware that while feminism is generally attributed to Western feminist movement, in fact there have always been the seeds of women's consciousness and empowerment early in our Asian herstory, long before the time of colonization (though without any feminist label). In fact, there are some traditional communities in Asia that still uphold their matrilineal and/or matriarchal cultural practices. Thus, the seeds of Asian feminism, the consciousness of women's equality with men, have been present in Asia.

Asian feminism takes a holistic and integrated approach, not the traditional specialist approach to learning. In our work with grassroots women, we teach the Bible, theology and ethics, history, social studies and analysis, group dynamics and interpersonal relations, leadership and communication skills in an integrated and holistic way. Instead of the usual specialist approach (of mastering the so-called core courses and then a few choices of the so-called less important elective courses), feminist learning takes an integrated approach. 

Asian feminism is not limited to learning that happens within the four walls of a classroom. Rather it regards the whole context as the classroom, where learners and resource persons take with them their experiences as integral parts of the curriculum; and where the learning process continues even outside the classroom period and setting.

Asian feminism uses alternative ways of teaching-learning that are experiential, participatory, critical and challenging. It is not so much the acquisition of head knowledge and information, but a process of growing in commitment to women�s empowerment, genuine partnership of women and men, and total transformation of society.

Asian feminism is relational, inclusive of men, youth and children, and all of God's creation. Our vision is partnership in love and service; justice in relationships; fulfillment in our callings; and empowerment of all for fullness of life. Asian feminists' critique of anthropocentrism is making us take seriously our connectedness with nature, hence, the concern for eco-feminism and holistic spirituality.

Feminist Theological Spiral of Analysis and Reflection

In the Asian feminist circle, we have developed a simple tool which can be called the Feminist Theological Spiral or Spiral of Faith Reflection (tool for critical contextual theologizing). It is actually inspired by the hermeneutic circle of liberation theology. This includes the following:

Naming the Oppression - Name a reality that reflects the oppression of women. This may include specific or general cases of gender discrimination, violence against women, sexual harassment, etc. How does it affect women's sense of worth and dignity?

Identifying the Reinforcing Agents - What factors reinforce such a reality? These include family upbringing, cultural traditions, religious teachings, socio-economic-political aspects, etc. How do these affect women's oppressed situation?

Identifying the Dominant Theology - What biblical support and theological interpretation have been used to justify the reality of oppression? Why are these so influential in our understanding of things? Whose interpretations are these? Why is this kind of interpretation propagated until today?

Doing the Feminist Critique - This entails a re-reading of cultural-religious teachings with women's critical eyes. What kind of God does the dominant theology portray for us? Is that the kind of God that we really believe in? Is that the kind of God that we see has been revealed in Jesus? Where is God in women's situation of pain and suffering?

Commitment to Action - What can women do to change the situation and transform the reality into something better for everyone?

Unlike a circle which gets completed when the last point meets the first one, this way of theologizing is better described as a spiral because the process continues as we name and analyze another reality of oppression.

Using feminist lenses in theological education makes learning more relevant, dynamic, experiential, personal and holistic. It would be greatly advantageous for Asian seminaries to mainstream Asian feminist theologizing in their curricula.