PhD Oral Exam - Laurel Andrew, Religion

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

The Evangelical Women’s Caucus (EWC) established an unprecedented relationship between evangelicals and feminists in the United States, the impacts of which persist today. In the 1960s and 1970s, many Americans viewed the emerging second-wave feminist movement as ideologically incompatible with evangelicalism. Pioneering biblical feminists, however, believed the Bible confirmed that God created women and men equally in his image. In 1974, biblical feminists created the EWC to advocate gender equality, bringing the “secular” feminist fight against sexism and sex-based discrimination into evangelical communities and churches. This dissertation examines how, despite representing ideologies often in tension, pathfinding biblical feminists built and sustained a coalition (the EWC), which grew into a movement (biblical feminism) that has transformed feminism, evangelicalism, and the broader American landscape. Drawing on extensive archival research, this dissertation traces the trajectory of the EWC from its inception to its current iteration as the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women’s Caucus - Christian Feminism Today (EEWC-CFT). By examining the EWC’s construction, maintenance, successes, schisms, and failures, this dissertation highlights the relationships between biblical feminists, evangelicals, and feminists throughout this history. The EWC exposed intersections, overlaps, and conflicts between the feminist and evangelical movements and incited new discourses around broader cultural questions regarding appropriate gender roles, reproductive rights, homosexuality, and race. Bridging evangelicalism and feminism, biblical feminists created a new identity that challenged existing ideological, political, and social binaries. Through the lens of the EWC’s coalition-building project, this dissertation reinterprets the history of biblical feminism, emphasizing its fluid, reciprocal, and interactive characteristics. This relational focus better reflects the complexities and nuances of biblical feminists’ lived realities. Although this dissertation examines biblical feminist history, the challenges and conflicts that biblical feminists have navigated remain part of a contemporary narrative of polarization in American culture. Revisiting this history through a new lens can help scholars and activists better understand the present in order to build a new future.