I recently read an article centering around Feminism vs. Christianity. One point the author made was this:

"[Christians] believe that women are different than men, and therefore have to be held up to the standards of what makes an excellent woman judged on our own terms. A high-achieving, admirable woman looks different than a high-achieving, admirable man, and she is going to accomplish different things."

There are many things that I, as a Christian, disagreed with in this article. First of all, who gave this author the authority to speak for all Christians? Just because it is what she thinks doesn't mean that it is the view of Christianity as a whole. Secondly, and more importantly, she is missing the point of feminism.

Feminism is not about women being the same as men in every respect. No one is silly enough to think that there are absolutely no differences between men and women. Feminism is about men and women being free to be whoever they want to be, and in that respect, they are the same.

You see, women are different from men. But women are also different from women. I, as a woman, will never be the same as my best friend Anna. She has different strengths than I do. She can listen to people and empathize with them in a way I could only dream about. That does not make her any more or less of an "admirable woman" than me. It just makes her different from me in the same way that I am different from my male friends. Our strengths are not the same. What we bring to the table will always be different.

It has nothing to do with our gender and it has everything to do with who God created us to be.

There are no set tasks that I have in this world because I am a woman. Someday, I might become a mother - or I might not. My role in this world is not to be a mother, a wife, or anything of the sort. My role is to love. And that is the same whether I am a man or a woman.

My gender is not what makes me different from men, and it is not what makes me "the same" as other women. I have my own personality, my own thoughts, my own abilities, and my own calling. Anyone who tells me my calling is based around my gender certainly does not understand the Gospel or the Kingdom of God. That is what feminism is about: understanding the worth and value of a person simply because they are human.

What does the standard for being high-achieving and admirable consist of? Why does it need to be different for men and women? It doesn't. Women are not different from men. Especially not from a Christ-centered perspective. Humans are just different from other humans. God has one goal for all of us: to know Him and to love Him. That seems like a pretty genderless calling to me.