Society and Work - Thoughts from Dorothy L. Sayers

Are women human? 
This is a question Dorothy L. Sayers asks to discuss a larger question of society.

I finished a short book of essays by Dorothy L. Sayers on the role of women and work in society. It was witty and full of very interesting counter-cultural viewpoints. She argues that feminism (as it began to grow in her days) tries to mold women into a category to say that women should be treated exactly the same as men, which does more harm than good. As the world already has too many categories of people that we plug people into, it is not good or unifying.

We are much too much inclined in these days to divide people into permanent categories, forgetting that a category only exists for its special purpose and must be forgotten as soon as that purpose is served.

These short essays were talks that she gave in 1938. By way of arguing against the cultural way of thought, she sets an example that if women are good at business, let them do it and do it well. And that's how they glorify God. If a women is an excellent judge, doctor, or policewoman, let her do it well. Likewise, if a man is good with the home cooking, shop keeping, or teaching, let him do it well. 

Once lay down the rule that the job comes first and you throw that job open to every individual, man, or woman, fat or thin, tall or short, ugly or beautiful, who is able to do that job better than the rest of the world.

Her point - we are made to do our work well, whatever that may be. Find what you do well and embrace it. Do not divide the work into men's work, or women's work. Isn't it human's work? She brings up a reminder from history when women did most of the work (brewing beer, making clothes, repairing things), and then after a war, men came back and took those jobs, or they were mechanized, leaving women to do the homemaking, and being dubbed "women's work".

Then, I reach a line like this one that makes me pause to chuckle at her wit (remember, Dorothy L.Sayers wrote many detective fiction novels that are absolutely delightful):

I am occasionally desired by congenital imbeciles and the editors of magazines to say something about the writing of detective fiction "from the woman's point of view." To such demands, one can only say, "Go away and don't be silly. You might as well ask what is the female angle on an equilateral triangle."

And further, it is best not to do our work with the aim to 'better the community' per say. Sayers argues that if our focus is to better the community, we shall not do our work well. We need to aim at doing our work to the very best of our ability. By being the best at our particular work and fully focusing on it, it automatically betters the community. All the while your good, best work gives glory to God by doing your work well. The best Christian work is a doing a job well.

This is the wayside approach, which actually makes so much sense. Those who get caught up in doing good for the wider whole can lose focus on the work they actually need to do, and end up not doing that well because the focus is diverted.

I love how Dorothy L. Sayers gives me these good thoughts to shape my ways of seeing, all from the 1930's when she wrote and spoke on these topics. She saw the cultural shifts taking place in her day, and it feels prophetic.

When she argues that the rise of feminism (which of course was all the rage in the 1940's) actually does more damage than good. It tries to fold women as being the same as men. Well, we are all human, so yes, the same. So, why do we need to break ourselves into a categories and bifurcate ourselves within society? We are all the same classification as human. Doesn't this project a sense of unity?

If you wish to preserve a free democracy, you must base it - not on classes and categories, for this will land you in the totalitarian state, where no one may act or think except as the member of a category. You must base it upon the individual Tom, Dick, and Harry, and the individual Jack and Jill - in fact, upon you and me.

Dorothy L. Sayers was such an admirable writer. Bringing the intelligent focus, wit, and knowledge. I admire her individuality, as she is unafraid of voicing truth, and writing with an intelligence so well thought.