Women's Work: A Lutheran Feminist Critique

Abstract

The Gospel is a subversive proclamation. It subverts the tentative essays of the feminist project even while often siding with those feminist voices as they are raised in protest and in plea for a larger justice than the Western philosophical project has been able to deliver. It recognizes and yet subverts our self-assurance that we “know” about work: about what is valuable work, about how women work, and about how women as workers are engaged by men and society generally. This article will suggest, in thinking about work, Lutheran feminists would want to go beyond the existing claims of feminist scholars about how we can know what we know. Before the law can support “good work,” we must know what good work is for human beings and how women experience workplaces.

Keywords: Lutheran, feminism, Lutheran feminists, the gospel, women’s work, valuable work, good work