Gender.  Ah, that unforgettable topic.  Gender never stops being controversial, especially when it comes to the question of whether or not women should be allowed to be the breadwinner, the main moneymaker in a relationship.  Katelyn Beaty of Christianity Today argues that it just might be okay for women to be the breadwinner, since it’s sometimes necessary for women to do this in light of their context.

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Christopher Hutton

2 Comments

  1. Thanks for linking to the CT column. I decided to post my response here:

    Three generations of my family have been non-traditional:

    Now
    in my 60’s, I was brought up as a farm boy, reared by two parents and
    two older sisters. Seeing that their income had not been adequate for
    the educational aspirations of one of my sisters, my mother took a job
    teaching fourth grade the year I entered sixth grade. It was at first a
    blow to my father’s pride, but he gradually, while still busy farming,
    began to develop interests in cooking, reading, taking part in civic
    activities, and, finally, at last joining and becoming very active in
    church where my mother was a licensed lay leader. In short, my father
    became a broader, more fruitful, more fulfilled human being. Meanwhile,
    my mother reveled in nurturing countless students and former students.
    My father ended up taking great pride in her teaching, and would quip,
    “If they wouldn’t pay her to teach, she would pay them to let her.” I
    learned to cook and tend to household matters, learnings that later
    became more important to my adult life than have been the farm chores,
    especially those involving mechanics, at which I often struggled. My
    parents were better people, and so was I, because of their departing
    from rigid roles and doing what they were actually wired to do.

    My
    wife and I have shifted roles several times in our lives, but, during
    the years that our daughter was growing up and most years since, she has
    earned more income than I have, sometimes significantly more. She is
    more extroverted and organized, and more naturally gifted at fulfilling
    public roles. I was by nature an introvert and an amateur scholar, but I
    loved nurturing our daughter, likewise introverted and scholarly. My
    wife and I are both very proud of her.

    Our daughter and her
    husband share parenting duties without worrying much about roles so far
    as we can tell. It is likely that they will adjust roles several times
    in their lifetimes just as the earlier generations have done. Like
    us, they are Bible-based Christians. I don’t believe that any one of
    these three generations of my family has ever defied God’s revealed will
    in the matter of our gender roles, although I would grant that we find a
    great deal more room for flexibility and individuality in the
    Scriptures than some Christians do.

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