From the above, the scholars focused on the development, methodology, philosophy, literature and religious view research of the Bible, provided various studies on Biblical literature。 Although there is research on either feminism with Biblical characters, or egalitarian with Biblical characters, there is not much research which combines Liberal feminism with Biblical female literature character’s analysis。 Thus, the writer brought up the idea of analyzing the Biblical female characters by the Liberal feminism theory as a complement of Liberal feminism studies and Biblical literature studies。 The issue that the author is trying to solve in this thesis is whether women and men are given rights equally and whether women and men are equal。 

3 Liberal Feminism Review

3。1 The Definition of Liberal Feminism

Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and life experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of gender; the themes explored in feminist theory include discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression, and patriarchy (Gilligan, 1977)。 Liberal feminism is the starting point for all schools of feminism, which started in the 1900s。 It asserts the equality of men and women; it concerns freedom and political rights of the inpidual, freedom of religion, women's right to choose and the right to self-determine。 In the 1960s civil rights movement, Liberal feminists had movements both on race discrimination and sex discrimination。 

As Tong (1989) said, “to the extent that society holds the false belief that women are, by nature, less intellectually and physically capable than men, it tends to discriminate against women in the academy, the forum, and the marketplace。 As liberal feminists see it, this discrimination against women is unfair (Tong, 1989, p。 2)。” Liberal feminism’s primary goal is gender equality in public society; women should have as much opportunity to succeed in the public society as men。 Furthermore, she emphasized the importance of equality in Liberal feminism and offered a solution to gender inequality, “Liberal feminists insist gender justice, requires us, first, to make the rules of the game fair and, second, to make certain that none of the runners in the race for society’s goods and services is systematically disadvantaged (Tong, 1989, p。 2)。” 文献综述

In conclusion, in the first solution Tong acquired the political rules to protect women’s rights, which referred to the equality of pursuing social success and personal freedom between men and women。 The second solution represents her goal that it is indeed necessary to end the disadvantaged position of women who are actually in different races in public, which would involve racial and sexual equality as well。 Liberal feminism believes that women have many impediments and even face rejections in many aspects of society, causing their failures in reality; meanwhile, patriarchy was embedded in the legal society and the traditional culture, which caused the unequal treatment and inferior status of female figures in the public world。 Liberal feminists argue that women are naturally equal both intellectually and physically to men, and women should not be discriminated by the society, which means that women should consistently enjoy their equal rights by their own ability, both in physical and spiritual; through women’s inpidual activities and choices, such as the interactions between men and women, to make their social positions free and equal。 This manifested what Tong stated, “The overall goal of Liberal feminism is creating a just and compassionate society in which freedom flourishes, where women and men can thrive equally (Tong, 1989, p。 13)。”

3。2 Liberal Feminism in the Bible