Valerie Saiving

Valerie Saiving is a feminist theologian, author of the influential essay "The Human Situation: A Feminine View" (1960). The crux of Saiving's argument in this article is that the focus on pride characteristic of traditional Christian interpretations of sin reflects male experience in a way that is inappropriate to the experience of most, if not all, women, who are much more likely to be prone to "triviality, distractibility, and diffuseness; lack of an organizing center or focus; dependence on others for one's self-definition; tolerance at the expense of standards of excellence ... in short, underdevelopment or negation of the Self."