Women in the Classroom

I’ve been teaching an English class at one of the Bible schools, and so have picked up an impression on what it looks like for women in this society to be trained alongside their husbands. It’s been a little discouraging impression to see how much lower across the board the women’s reading and writing skills are, but also good to see some of them scored as well as their husbands on the test and have maintained a decent level of interest. I’m sure that they have less time outside of class to be engaged in any of the coursework and have additional things on their mind (like babies wrapped around their backs sometimes) during class. 

Women at the Bible school doing their "extra-curriculars" of
pounding millet and other food prep

But on a more encouraging note, I’ve also been sitting in on some other classes while I’m at the school, in order to do more language practice in a theological setting and understand the school better. This has really deepened my perspective on what “normal” classes are like and what women’s participation can be. In the other classes, wives sit next to their husbands (unlike the divided seating for my class in the chapel), and I found that the instructors call on the women for answers just as much if not more than the men. On further reflection I wonder if the women were frequently called on first because it would be too embarrassing in this culture for a husband to give a bad answer first and then a wife to upstage him with a better answer. Anyway, I was quite impressed with how engaged in the class discussions the women have been, and how I wasn’t able to notice any other distinction made between their participation and the men’s. While women aren’t often seen in leadership outside of women’s fellowship groups, the occasional general secretary for a congregation, and one Bible school principal who took over after her husband died – this seems like the church is now taking steps to honor the God given gifts of women as well, and some even talk about the possibility of women pastors in the future.

--El Padre