BBC Radio 4 2016-05-31

BBC Radio 4 2016-05-31

Unless you were listening to this programme yesterday, you might not recognise the name of Sarah Guppy. You might be equally unaware of the Daughters of Zelophehad, though I'd like to suggest that more of us should recognise them.

Sarah Guppy – as we learned – was a highly unusual inventor in the 19th century. Unusual because she was responsible for a whole range of innovations, from a method of bridge building which inspired Telford and Brunel to a four poster bed which doubled as a gymnasium. Also unusual because before the Women's Property Act became law, she took out patents in her own name. Yet despite this singularity, she has never been celebrated as a great British inventor.

Almost three millennia separate her from the daughters of Zelophehad, but they've been in print for six hundred years. They appear in the Hebrew scriptures - Jewish women, born to a man who had no sons. When he died, the law of inheritance by-passed them. Their father's property and wealth had to be divided among their uncles.

Understandably, they thought this was unfair. So rather than grin and bear it, they went to see Moses and made a complaint about the injustice.

Moses – not for the first time when confronted with an awkward problem - took it to the Lord in prayer, and God said 'Change the law'.

To me it is remarkable that long before gender equality was an issue in common parlance, these sisters' defiance of biased legislation should have touched the heart of God and changed the law of property.

It is understandable that not many people would know the name of Sarah Guppy. Not everyone has the Dictionary of Innovation on their shelves, and yesterday it was suggested that rather than women being written out of history, many have never been written in.

But that can't be said for the Daughters of Zelophehad. They appear in the Bible, copies of which are everywhere. They have been written in, they can't be written out.

Why is it that I, who have probably read the Bible from front to back around 20 times never knew of them until recently?

I think it's because as part of the Jewish-Christian tradition and in company with most male believers, I have skimmed over much of what the Bible says about women, in preference for noticing men like Saul or Samson in whom little by way of moral or spiritual edification may be recognised.

I can't obliterate that historical defect, but I can determine not to promote it. In religious as in all other walks of life, as a man I have the choice to live in a man's world. Or I can choose to live in an inclusive world in which the experience of women will not complement mine; it will make me a fuller human being.

First broadcast 31 May 2016