Women have never held power in patriarchal societies but we can still effect significant change

Elaine Storkey unpacks the biblical story of Esther’s to reveal her courage in risking her own security to preserve the lives of others

If we were living in the Persian empire around 480 years before Jesus, we would have had to watch our step carefully as women. As in many cultures, we would have been powerless and marginalised and any freedoms would have been limited. It wouldn’t have made a huge difference either whether we were immigrants in the culture or part of the dominant ethnic majority; we still would have had no rights or authority of our own. As women we could not make our own decisions. We would not even have had much choice about whether we got married or not, or to whom. And whether we were wives, daughters or servants, our role would have been to do as we were told.