I might be tempted call her a nag, or a scold, or a hag, or worse. A woman I knew said, “My husband says I am an advocate for our child; but I know that’s not the word that the head of school uses to describe me when I get off the phone.” Women are still accused of being strident or shrill if they raise their voices, unladylike if they take off their shoes and their kid gloves. Yet here, centuries before women’s lib was outdated, here is a character who knows her right to be recognized, to be justified. She knows that in the economy of the kingdom of God she has just as much worth as a worthless judge, and she is not afraid to say so, nor to keep saying so, whatever the judge might call her behind her back. What’s more, she is not doing it for a child or a sister or a friend; she is not hiding her own worth behind someone else’s. She owns her own value.

There’s a whole lot else in this story, but this fearless female spoke to me.