Amy Cunningham

Would you say that the greatest tension is with Christians who have attacked the feminist agenda, making it difficult for women to believe that they could be both active Christians and feminists?

Helen LaKelly Hunt: I do think that the Jewish tradition and the Muslim tradition also structure their faith in a way that challenges the feminist agenda of women’s voice being equal to men’s. And it is troubling to me and troubling to many women who want feminism to resound in their faith. I don’t think it’s more intense with the Christians.

Gloria Steinem wrote the introduction to your book. And Betty Friedan writes in a cover blurb that she encouraged you to write a book on faith and feminism as you were walking together on a beach. Is the fact that they wrote those things an indication of a change of heart on their part, a warming up to faith?

I was very blessed. Both women mean a lot to me, and I was surprised that they were so forthcoming in writing about the book. With Betty, she was never against religion. She was always frustrated that feminists projected that. In fact, of the seven people who founded NOW, two of them were nuns. And when they had their first press conference, Betty said, “Wear your habits.” And the nuns said, We don’t want to wear our habits because we are here to start a social movement — it’s not about a religious thing. And Betty said, “No, I want you to wear your habits for this.” And they said, no they wouldn’t. And finally Betty said, “Dammit, wear your habits!” She was always wishing that religion would be front and centre. — Beliefnet.com