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When I began my first full time job, I discovered I was in a double minority. I was employed in a social work office in London where I was the only Scot - so nobody could understand me. And the office had more women in it than men - Six against four, and the team leader was female. I am deeply grateful for that initiation because it challenged my cultural assumptions that men should always be in control. Across the globe, history has tended to regard women in positions of responsibility as the exception. That's partly because men wrote the majority of history books, but also because for centuries most public institutions, professions, governmental systems prevented the participation of women. And despite legislation regarding equal opportunities, it's still the alpha male who tends to make the news, asserting his right to be heard and forcibly voicing his disapproval if he doesn't get his way. Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Vladimir Putin have all to some extent exemplified these traits in the past week. I wish I could say that the Christian Church got it right, but I know enough of Church history not to be so naive. Religious institutions have often been at the very back of the field in challenging dominant cultural assumptions when it comes to gender. So it was a bit of a revelation to me a couple of years ago, when I decided to go through the Bible from beginning to end and read only the chapters which mentioned women. I discovered around thirty in the Hebrew Scriptures of whom I - as a student of the Bible - knew nothing. But more significantly I found that in the Gospels there are 23 identifiable women connected with Jesus whose faith, generosity, courage, and defiance stand in stark contrast to their male counterparts. I'm led to ponder whether it was because Jesus wasn't an alpha-male that women loved him, and because he wasn't an alpha male that men had to get rid of him. Remember, the only person who tried to prevent the crucifixion was a woman - Pilate's wife. But I'm also wondering, given that International Women's Day falls on Monday whether those of us who are men might regard it not as a celebration from which we are excluded but as an opportunity – even if it seemingly goes against our interests – to ponder whether, as regards the fuller profile of women in society, we are encouragers or impediments.