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Another reaction consistent with conservatism (one that can enhance the critical perspective conservatives express within a society) was Texas Baptist women's acceptance of change in small increments. When this critical perspective is most viable, deliberate movements allow time for thoughtfulness regarding complex issues—in this case, sexual definition. Particularly is this valuable when the social order is threatened and good alternatives to change are not evident. During the period of this study, women expanded their role, but they would not agree to the removal of certain barriers or distinctions between the sexes. They were not willing to throw either the baby or its father out with the bathwater. This kind of cautiousness served a positive function by preserving their sense of worth and identity; they refused to deny who they were or what their past had been. They refused to denounce either men or maternity. But Baptist women's reluctance to change was not commendable insofar as it was a result of Baptist men's unwillingness to share their power or of women's perception that they were not worthy of wider consideration. Nor would it be commendable today if Southern Baptists react to change in women's role so slowly that they lose generations of able women.
In retaining their allegiance to family ties, Texas Baptist women expressed a criticism of women's liberation that was prophetic—later waves of popular and scholarly works on the subject explore the ways women can accommodate their needs for familial relationships and freedom at the same time. In a controversial article written for
Daedalus in 1977, sociologist Alice Rossi, building on the work of sociobiologists, contended that developments in work patterns and expansion of women's role would have to accommodate fundamental relationships to children and family.
Alice Rossi, "A Biosocial Perspective on Parenting,"
Daedalus 106, no. 2 (Spring, 1977), pp. 1-31. Carl Degler,
At Odds (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 436-473. Betty Friedan,
The Second Stage (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981).
If emphasis on interdependence of the sexes and the protection of children in a stable structure was the virtue of conservative reaction to changes in women's role, its fault was a failure to face the issue of power. These women were not powerless—women have always exercised power, they have just not done so directly. A power relationship always works two ways: the weak, by their consent, are as involved in its exercise as are the strong. Women have always had access to power through their sexuality, but the subjects of this study gained another source of denominational influence when they started generating large amounts of income to support mission causes. They, however, did not capitalize upon that advantage, but subordinated it to their evangelistic ideal. Men, therefore, maintained the reins of power in the denomination and continued to hold the corner on privilege, even though their exclusive rights diminished.
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