I’m not one for nostalgia. History is often distorted and glamorized when viewed through the rearview mirror. The more I share my past, the faster my running times get and the better my grades become! In her book, Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus provides a jolt of reality, painting a picture of life for women in the 1950s.
Lessons in Chemistry enables us to travel through time, space, race, and even gender as we walk in the shoes of Elizabeth, a woman who wants to be a chemist in a male-dominated world of education, work, and society. As a woman in the 1950s, she could not open a bank account, get a loan, a credit card, or a buy house without a man’s signature. She was unwelcome in the field of chemistry. Becoming pregnant and raising a child out of wedlock was socially shameful for her and her daughter.
As an African American man, I’ve struggled with the outcomes of the feminist movement. It appeared to bestow advantages and privileges exclusively upon certain white women, neglecting the needs of poor white women and Black women entirely. Lessons in Chemistry forced me to see oppression in the Big House, and to understand that just because there is a green lawn with a white picket fence, it doesn’t exempt the abuse, disrespect, and disempowerment behind closed doors. Suffering is suffering, regardless of skin color, status, or ethnic background.
Why was I led to read Lessons in Chemistry during Advent? To truly appreciate the light of Advent–hope, peace, joy, and love–we must be willing to look at the darkness in our world. I wish we were beyond gender discrimination. Do we still have congregations that will not elect women elders? Yes. Do we still have congregations that would never have a woman as pastor? Yes. Even in 2025, churches still see women as occupying certain roles, doing certain things, and not others. The ugly tentacles of gender limitation from the 1950s still extend into the twenty-first century. Author and lawyer Bryan Stevenson often says, “Slavery didn’t end in 1865, it evolved.” The same can be said for injustice toward women.
Perhaps we can shift our rose-colored nostalgia lens and see things as they truly were. Then we can face the realities of gender and racial injustice in our churches and communities today, as we bring the liberating light of Christ into the world this Advent season.
Rev. Dr. Craig Howard
