Before I came to college, I was deluded enough to consider feminism an irrelevant issue in the United States. I was naïve enough to believe that the only issues feminism had reason to be concerned with were issues of gender oppression in countries outside the borders of the United States. For some reason, I assumed that gender equality was a near-universally accepted concept in America. I didn’t really expect many people to still disrespect the validity of the female point of view in 2016. But I guess I was wrong.

The other day, I was sitting in class. There were about 20 people (approximately half men and half women) gathered around a table discussing women in the Bible, specifically in Paul’s letters to the early church. We were considering Ephesians 5 and the famous “wives submit to your husbands” passage (Eph. 5:22). As the discussion progressed, I began to notice a difference in the way the men and women approached the same passage of scripture. To begin with, the men primarily dominated the conversation whereas the majority of females at the table struggled to find space in the discussion to comment their own experiences or opinions. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that men were dominating a conversation about wives submitting to husbands was not what bothered me — what unsettled me was what some of the men were saying.

The idea of men being inherently better at protecting and providing for women was brought up multiple times throughout the conversation. One gentleman even suggested that, perhaps, women ought to submit to their husbands because, after all, it was a woman who ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden and started us off on the whole path of sin. Another classmate wondered if there is a hierarchy of God over Christ, Christ over man, and man over woman; he considered whether such an order might in some way be a sort of divine ordering of who can “cope” with more, God being able to handle the most and women being able to handle, well, basically nothing. The sexist brainstorming went on and on. The worst part was to hear them agree with each other as if those ideas were gospel itself.

Um, what? Hold the phone. Since when were women so helpless and stupid? I thought we’d figured that out years ago. It’s 2016. How is this still being debated?

First of all, both men and women are created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (NRSV, emphasis mine). Both males and females were uniquely created by God without hierarchy of inherent value. They both receive direct value from being created in the image of the everlasting God of the universe. No, men and women were not created to be identical, but those differences do not place one gender over the other in any way, shape or form. Those differences make each gender unique in its own right.

Sure, men may have some physical attributes that generally make them more suited for battle, but guess what? Women have been fighting (and fighting competently) in physical combat for millennia. Think about the Amazon women of Greek mythology, the female Soviet snipers in World War II, the women in the armed forces of the United States and the bands of Kurdish women in active combat against ISIS. So, I’m sorry men, but women are not powerless to protect themselves. True, males don’t have to deal with periods or getting pregnant, and, yeah, that’s a plus when you’re trying to fight a war. But that in no way makes the females less capable.

Also, I thought we’d cleared this up about 100 years ago, but we know it’s possible for women to provide for themselves. Whereas I completely agree it is generally more culturally acceptable for men to be the breadwinners for the family, once again history has proven that women are not dependent on men. Even in cultures that rely on hunting or foraging, women have traditionally been able to survive without men carrying them every step of the way. Please don’t misunderstand me, I have no problem with a woman choosing to be a stay-at-home mom and the husband choosing to earn money for the family. My issue is when men assume they are inherently “better” at providing for a family than women. That is completely false. Try telling that to any single mom ever. The question of “who can do what job better” has absolutely nothing to do with gender. It’s a personal issue depending on character and skill.

So back to the Bible. Yes, I understand that wives are supposed to “submit to their husbands,” but let’s take a look at the verse right before that: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21 NIV). All of us, both males and females, are to reverently submit to Christ first and foremost and subsequently submit to each other, regardless of gender or any other attribute. This is true of every relationship, not just marriage. In everything, Christ should be our focus. We are to love Him with everything in us. Through that, our human relationships will necessarily be characterized by love and respect. The question of love and respect isn’t a gender issue, it’s a human issue. I was disappointed to hear so many young men undermining the capabilities of women in such a broad, stereotypical manner. My gender does not define my worth or ability any more than my skin color determines my intelligence.

Even at a university, a place supposed to be progressive and free-thinking, sexism is still a very real issue. I hope young men and women can eventually come to recognize the unique values and capabilities of the people around them, without presupposing any limitations based on race, gender, or anything else.