CSW69 Reflection: Ashley Stanley
From Start to Finish
I found both of our orientations deeply inspiring as we prepared to engage in the Commission. When Reverend Dr. Mary Newbern Williams addressed us at our Presbyterian orientation, she spoke about commitment and faithfulness in a way I had never heard. “God works miracles through us – miracles of love, commitment, and faithfulness.” I had never thought of my deep commitment to the church or individual faithfulness as a miracle, but after some reflection I agree with Dr. Williams’ perspective. The world offers us many reasons to lessen our commitment to the church, including disagreements among members, financial difficulties, personal fears and anxieties, past grievances, illnesses (physical and mental), and the list could go on. As a Presbyterian, it feels very fitting to view our intrinsic motivation to serve the church as being imbued by God, rather than attached to our personality traits.
Another quote from Dr. Williams that stuck with me throughout the week was, “God calls us to use our gifts, not only to bring glory to God, but also to make life well for all God’s children.” This calling came up over and over again during my time at the Commission. Making life well for others is not easy – it is a multifaceted calling that requires us to examine our deeply held beliefs, our habits, the ways we worship and serve together. In re-examining our ethos, we may find new urgency and deeper importance in caring for creation, providing shelter for those in need, and offering mental and emotional outlets for our communities. The Presbyterian Church can answer the call to provide an intellectual community space where people can communicate with other human beings, without the interference of artificial intelligence or demands from employers. Safeguarding mental and emotional health is a vital ministry area, and it is very important for women who are far more likely to serve as caregivers, work in healthcare, or suffer from chronic illnesses. Each church member’s faithful commitment to re-examining the ministries and missions of the church can be a miracle, as Dr. Williams taught us. Our faithfulness to our church can birth new life, not merely committed attendance or daily, weekly, and annual repetition.
Progressive Strategies from the Nordic Countries
The Nordic Ministers Panel was the first session I attended in the ECOSOC Chamber. The leaders of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Faroe Islands shared their countries’ progress on securing gender equality as well as strategies that other countries and organizations may adopt. One of the most important statements made during this session was, “We must engage not just with those who agree with us. But we must also engage with those who do not agree with us.” This was an important reminder that we must engage with people who seem to oppose our goals on the surface. We must engage in order to educate others on the true meaning of gender equality and an equitable society. I highlighted two important focus areas during the panel – legislating enthusiastic sexual consent and policies on parental and family leave.
In the Nordic region, laws have been passed mandating sexual consent. Under these laws, the lack of verbal consent is a case of sexual assault or rape. The victim of an assault is no longer explaining why something happened to them. The accused must explain why consent was not obtained. With regards to family and parental leave policies, it is important to reframe parental leave as not being solely a women’s rights issue. Parental leave is a women’s rights, children’s rights, and fathers’ rights issue. Children have a right to a relationship with both of their parents. Likewise, fathers have a right to time with their young children as do mothers. This approach to advocating for maternity and paternity leave, as well as extended parental/family leave policies is an equitable approach. It encompasses women’s rights, and it also highlights the human rights and dignity of children. It involves all members of the family. This reminded me of a quote from our Ecumenical Women’s orientation, “When a man washes the dishes or prepares food for his children, he is not helping the woman. He is raising his family together with her.”
The Bias Within Neutrality
One of the virtual sessions I attended on March 21st exposed the hidden biases in neutrality or neutral language. When we are told to be neutral or use neutral language, we are instructed to erase part of ourselves and our culture, as well as those of others. Neutrality assumes a level playing field that does not exist. This is a very popular idea in American culture and politics today, and unfortunately it will result in harm to marginalized people including many women and girls. This reminded me of people who claimed to be “colorblind” during and immediately following the American Civil Rights Movement. Being “colorblind” or “neutral” denies the value of other cultures and people who are different from oneself. It also devalues one’s own culture(s).
This issue will require more and more advocacy as artificial intelligence and algorithms dictate more elements of our daily lives in the future. Algorithms are not free from biases; they scale up or push forward the biases of their initiators and creators. For example, algorithms have rejected job applicants who attended women’s colleges. Similarly, facial recognition software misidentifies women and people of color far more often than white men. This creates a barrier for qualified women and minority employees and students because they must redo their credentials and passwords far more frequently.
Within the Presbyterian Church, we have a longstanding tradition of adapting existing hymns, liturgies, and spoken words using gender neutral language. In the faith based context, we can use the name God, and many other names for God from Scripture which are free from an assigned human gender. It is urgent for Presbyterians, especially Presbyterian Women, to also examine our use of language when referring to humanity, creation, and the implementation of technology. We must examine all language and technology for implicit or unconscious biases, not only our references to God and the language of worship. One of the key statements I recorded from this session on neutrality was very instructive, “Bias is not the problem. Unexamined bias can be the problem.” The existence of unconscious bias is unavoidable; the examination of biases must be undertaken in order to achieve gender equality.
Another closing statement was very instructive for work within the church (particularly committees and task forces) – “Disagreement does not have to be competitive. It can be collaborative.” We can approach our disagreements with open minds that there are more than two solutions or outcomes possible. A disagreement cannot always be reduced to right versus wrong, me versus you, or us versus them. The outcome can be all of us together achieving the goals of both (or all) viewpoints, or it could be all of us together achieving a new goal separate from our original ideas. In some cases, it could be all of us together deciding that the disagreement or issue was misplaced and moving on to other work. This framework around disagreements could be very freeing for many church committees, congregations, and organizations.
