Sort of like the parable of the talents
But the servants are women this time
Gentle reader,
I’ve been teaching theology full-time for 19 years, and witnessing the talents God pours out on students is one of my greatest joys. Also, though, over those years, my heart has broken a thousand times over what church and world can do to talented women. And again and again, the parable of the talents has come boiling into my mind and heart.
Please receive the following as a parable, which doesn’t tell everything there is to tell, but does tell something that needs to be told.
For it is as if a great leader, going on a journey, summoned her servants and entrusted her property to them; to one she gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to her ability. Then she went away.
At once the one who had received the five talents determined to invest, and she took her skills, which were the reason she was entrusted with five talents in the first place, and applied for jobs at top investment firms. She got a job quickly, though her brother muttered that she only got it because she is a woman, and she went to work with greatest energy.
But over time, she found that her brother, with less expertise, was promoted ahead of her.1 When she offered a brilliant idea, it was ignored until another brother claimed it as his own, when it was lauded.2 Co-workers would not share meals with her;3 their wives didn’t like them hanging out with other women. She was not invited to the golf games and whiskey clubs where the best investment strategies were traded.
More, she couldn’t invest at all until she used one of her talents to pay the pink tax4 for the grooming5 and garb6 required to admit her to the investment room floor. She used another talent to pay for childcare, and lost another opportunity to yet another brother, when she stayed home with her sick child on the day of that one meeting. While she grew many talents for the company, and the firm’s CEO prospered, her own talents became a stagnant pool. She grew discouraged and paled, as the years wore on.
Aschenputtel; Darstellung von Alexander Zick (1845 - 1907)
In the same way, the one who had the two talents planned to find every opportunity to invest. But, while she offered to sit on the super-big-wig investment panel, she found it was already filled with men, and when she showed up bright and early for the talent search, she was told the competition was closed to women, who should take their talents home. When she published her writings on talent use, she was ignored by readers,7 while a book by a big-platform-talent-man, written by a ghostwriter, shot up the bestseller list.
And the one who had received the one talent? Her husband insisted on handling all the talents, and he took her one talent from her and hid it, burying it in a damp hole. When she went to her priest for help, he told her to go home and submit to her husband.
“Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me a chance to do my best.” — Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen, Babette’s Feast
After a long time, the leader returned to settle accounts with her servants.
Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing two talents, saying, “Great leader, you handed over to me five talents; though I worked all my years to bring you a return on your investment, I now have only two talents for you.”
The leader said to her, “Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “leader, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have them here for you.” Her master said to her, “Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Mark 10:31
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you expected much, for you gave me this precious talent. I did not earn a return, but here is what you gave me. You have what is yours.”
But her master replied, “bring me your husband!” And to the husband, the leader said, “You wicked and lazy servant! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have treasured the talent I bestowed on your wife, and encouraged and supported her in investing it and letting it multiply.”
De gelijkenis van de talenten, Nederlands: Kunstenaar: Jan Frearks van der Bij, 1962
And the leader said, “bring me the priest, and the CEO, and the brothers who won every opportunity, and the readers and publishers who mishandled the books of my servants!” And to them, she said, “did you not know? You should look not only to your own interests but to the interests of others? And had you not heard? Everything exposed to the light becomes visible.”
And to her three faithful servants, she said, “So take their talents from them, and steward them among you. For to all those who know that talents are mine, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who put stumbling blocks in the way of my talented ones, even what they have will be taken away.”
Grace and peace,
BFJ
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“The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 15 years or so. In 2020, women earned 84% of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. Based on this estimate, it would take an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020.”
“bias does not seem to be based solely (or even primarily) on teaching style or even grading patterns. Students appear to evaluate women poorly simply because they are women.”
“A third unintended consequence of the Billy Graham Rule is that it can systematically deprive women of access, power and agency.”
“Researchers in gender inequality often point to what’s known as the ‘pink tax,’ a markup on goods and services marketed to women and for which men pay less for similar products and services.”
“The grooming gap refers to the set of social norms regarding grooming and appearance for women, including the time women workers must spend to conform to these norms and the material consequences it has on their lives.”
“Based on her experience as a Westfield Southland stylist, Victoria Tomaro estimates women in the corporate sector spend about $8000 on a work wardrobe, while men spend about $5000. And it seems the suit is the key factor. ‘Men have that real simplicity when it comes to workwear,’ Ms Tomaro said.”
“women writers continue to be judged by the ‘pram in the hallway’, and pigeonholed as domestic rather than taken seriously as authors.”
I can’t like this, because it breaks my heart. I feel like we as a society are actually going backward from when I was young in the 70s and 80s. I have heard my twin daughters say things that are misogynistic unknowingly, having picked it up from school or someplace. The world may judge women, and embrace patriarchy, and all that, but why in God’s name does the church?
This parable describes life in a fallen world where male and female roles are broken. It is indeed heart breaking but not surprising. The surprising thing is that it is addressed to servants of the ruler. The men in the story, brothers, husbands should know better. They should do all they can to help and assist the women in their lives make their way in this fallen world, to be part of the solution, not the problem. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Self sacrificial love is the mandate, and not just to wives. Whoever would be great in the kingdom of heaven must be servant to all. Closing doors and erecting barriers is not the way of Christ.