麻豆社

Good morning.

Alison McKenzie, Linda Treeby, Safie Xheta. These are just three of more than a hundred names of women murdered by men over the past year, read out by MP Jess Phillips in the House of Commons this week.

Data compiled by the Femicide Census found that in 2018, 149 women are known to have been killed by men.

I find this an appalling statistic. And a devastating indictment on our society. In hearing the names of murdered women, I鈥檓 reminded that these are not just numbers, but representations of the lives, stories, hopes and dreams of women who deserved to be treated with dignity.

Tomorrow鈥檚 International Women鈥檚 Day marks another day in which we celebrate the amazing contribution of women in every sphere of society, but every year it serves as a reminder of how far we have to go to achieve equality.

Tonight, I was due to be in New York at the United Nations 64th Commission on the Status of Women, but the UN postponed it due to the Coronavirus. Thousands of people committed to gender equality from all over the world are of course disappointed. For many, it feels like a huge setback in the fight for women鈥檚 rights and global gender equality.

But while large-scale changes are needed on the international stage, with laws and regulations, global commitments, goals and treaties that improve life for womankind as a whole, perhaps each of us can commit to changes closer to home 鈥� equality in the family, at work, in our communities and in our places of worship.

The Church is far from blameless when it comes to gender equality; patriarchal norms have over the centuries served to subjugate and denigrate women.

It was after all St Thomas Aquinas who said: 鈥淲oman is defective and misbegotten.鈥�

There are only 49 women named in the Bible. From the familiar ones: Mary, Esther, Eve; to the less well-known: Adah, Hepzibah, Rhoda. In the stories of each of these 49 women 鈥� who between them say around one per cent of the words spoken in the Bible 鈥� we find stories of trauma and loss and violence.

Though it may seem at times hard to believe, at the heart of the Christian story is Christ; a God-man who reaches out beyond the confines of gender roles and stereotypes, and takes the women he encounters out of the boxes in which society has placed them. In a world in which progress is slow for women鈥檚 equality, that鈥檚 what I would hope each of us should strive towards achieving 鈥� whether or not we are people of faith.

As feminist Gloria Steinem said: 鈥淭he story of women鈥檚 struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.鈥�

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