Biblical womanhood is a movement within evangelical Christianity, particularly in the United States. It adopts a complementarianorpatriarchal view of gender roles, and emphasizes passages such as Titus 2 in describing what Christian women should be like. According to author Rachel Held Evans, it is driven by the conviction that "the virtuous woman serves primarily from the home as a submissive wife, diligent homemaker, and loving mother."[1]
Institutions supporting the movement include Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,[2][3] while organizations associated with the movement include the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Notable writers include Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Dorothy Patterson, Elisabeth Elliot, and Priscilla Shirer.[citation needed] Edith Schaeffer's 1971 book, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, has been described as "perhaps unintentionally, a landmark book for proponents of biblical womanhood."[4]
Held Evans suggests that "biblical" is a loaded term, and argues that adherents have "refused to acknowledge" that their interpretation involves a "certain degree of selectivity".[5][6][7] Advocates caution that "most women in Third World countries... would find our American, evangelical stereotype of biblical womanhood completely foreign and often simply physically impossible."[8] Some conservative Christian women have critiqued Evans's interpretation for undermining faith in biblical inerrancy.[9]
In 2010, historian Molly Worthen wrote that "'Biblical womanhood' is a tightrope walk between the fiats of old-time religion and the facts of modern culture, and evangelicals themselves do not know where it might lead."[10]
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