The Church must learn to dismantle patriarchy’s power together

Liz Cooledge Jenkins felt uneasy discussing much of her experience as a young woman in church. She wrote Nice Churchy Patriarchy to highlight the issues she faced.

I spent most of my young adulthood not confronting the myriad forms of patriarchy I experienced all around me, all the time. Even in the church - especially in the church - my tightest community, my home away from home, the space where I got to live out my deepest values and passions in life, as well as my place of full-time employment for a time.

Looking back, I feel that the faces of misogyny were blurry to me. It wasn’t exactly that I didn’t see them; I knew, for example, that I felt uncomfortable when men made unwanted comments when I walked by them while going about my daily business. And I knew that I disagreed with my church’s policy of prohibiting women from serving on the elder board.