Always Reforming?

Abstract

This article reconfigures the conventional understanding of second wave feminism and feminists through an analysis of the Committee for Women in the Christian Reformed Church (CW-CRC). Rather than challenging societal and denominational norms, the CW-CRC used the normative expectations and structures of the Christian Reformed Church in order to bring about a fundamental change in practice and a reformation in scriptural understanding. Tying gender equality to the theology of the denomination, the women of the Committee defined acceptance of women’s equal authority in the church as a theological necessity—something that was not just morally or ethically right, but biblically right. Regardless of their association with the term feminist or their alignment with conventional methods and arguments of second wave feminism, the members of the CW-CRC—and the women they sponsored—were working toward gender equity. Recognizing their unique means of enacting reform suggests fluidity in the social markers of feminism.