Our county recently made history, when the governor appointed our first female judge.  Down below the clock tower my boys can see from their bed, deep inside the recesses of the old, architecturally impressive building, one woman sits on the bench.  Her co-workers and her equals, only men.

The thing about being a judge is that it is an elected position.  It’s up to the people of the county to decide if affirming a female in a place normally reserved for men is important.  There’s one man running against her, and judging by the yard signs, it will be a close race.

*****

I was talking to the lone woman who is on our church’s worship team.  When I look up at the stage on a Sunday morning, and week after week, it’s only men up front, singing, playing instruments, giving announcements, preaching, and when I only see women as secretaries, Sunday School teachers, or coffee makers, then sometimes I wonder if women are valued for who they are as humans instead of the gender roles they play.

So, instead of continuing on in my unfairly negative assumptions, I asked her if there was a reason there weren’t more women playing instruments or singing, and she said no.  The people who are there are have just ended up on the team one way or another.

There’s no big male conspiracy or theological reasoning women aren’t more prominent on the worship stage.  Then she told me they are actually looking for a couple more people, but haven’t made an announcement.  In a church of 400, there has to be more than one woman who plays and sings.

“How are women going to know there are places for them if you don’t say anything?”

*****

Unless we are intentional about calling women out from the crowd, and supporting them when they do step out, we will never achieve true equality.  Even when there may not be a sexist or patriarchal attitude stopping women from joining, if we don’t make a purposeful effort to include women, they won’t be included.  How will they know, if we don’t say anything?

So when a history-making seat is open, and again all the judges may become male, I choose to support the female candidate.  Even though female judges can have horrible decisions just as male judges can, when there is no indication she would be a poor choice, why not support her?

When we have the opportunity to support a woman, or to encourage people to seek out other women, we need to do so.  Sometimes we need to be the one to plead on behalf of those sitting in the chairs on Sunday, wondering where all the women are up front.

If we believe women are ezer kenegdo, we need to tell them.  We need to encourage them and affirm their voice and position.  It will take all of us working together to restore the true meaning of help-meet.  We need to affirm women at all levels.  Not to raise them up against men or as better than men, like some people might think.  But it is our responsibility, our opportunity, to tell women they are just as valid as men.

How will they know if we keep silent?

I think it’s easy to get locked into a mentality of ‘this is how it’s always been’ without consciously knowing it.  I bet most of the people at my church would say that of course women can sing and play instruments up front.  I’m sure most people would say, ‘of course women can be judges’.  But it takes intentional effort to put women in those spots where they are not.

Because maybe it’s not intentional discrimination.  Maybe they just don’t know how important their role is.  Caught in a society where all-maleness is normal, it’s easy to forget we need to seek out women where there aren’t any.

It’s easy to think that one vote in a presidential race doesn’t matter.  But when it’s a local election, it can matter so much more.  It’s easy to think that being one person in a church doesn’t matter.  But in a conversation with another person, you can make a difference.  We’re all equal in the voting booth and in conversations.

Let’s use those places of equality to build bridges to even greater arenas.