Conclusion

The key elements of the British Christian women's movement of the 1970s and 1980s may be drawn together around four broad axes. First, the movement was forged in the crucible of the post-1960s cultural shift, which set in motion four broad currents within the churches. Second, the specific outworking of the Anglican women's ordination debate, within the Church of England, was of critical significance for the ethos of the British Christian women's movement. Third, the Christian women's Eve emerged in the Anglican context. Fourth, the author not claims that the British Christian women's movement was monolithic. On the contrary, diverse elements demonstrated their allegiance to the wider movement. The British Christian women's strategy of claiming a rehabilitation of Eve in terms of Chalcedonian orthodoxy, rather than in terms of the christoalogical paradigm shift of North American feminist theology, may be more enduring in the face of the post-1990 swing towards neo-orthodoxy.