ABSTRACT
The 20th century saw massive change due to wars, political campaigns and technological advances. However, like any other century, it still carried within it many popular beliefs and myths about many types of ‘others’, women amongst them. As the century has moved on, we see more clearly how those popular beliefs were often multi-layered, never simply about women as a general category, although there were plenty of those, but influenced by context, race, class and sexual orientation. Many of these beliefs were rooted in centuries of Christian views of women such as their responsibility for the Fall of Man through sexual temptation, associated with offering food, an apple, to being defective males, conceived when an east wind blew, therefore needing a man to be whole. This complementary model has been, and it could be argued still is, extremely destructive for women in many ways, some of which will be examined in this chapter. It is a model that certainly influenced much theology throughout the century and echoed far and wide throughout cultures.
