Granted these are important chapters for understanding the image of women in the biblical text, especially for Christianity, but this is not the entire story. In fact, these chapters are seldom referred to elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible raising questions concerning how foundational they are for biblical notions of the role of women in society. This too reflects a move in feminist interpretation to highlighting the desperate plight and abuse by many women in the biblical stories. The move towards less of a focus on specific stories to understanding trends is not only one of topic but methodology, also reflected in Bird's work. The field of biblical studies in general has undergone major methodological shifts in the last thirty years with the introduction of a number of different approaches to the field.
Feminist interpretation is now a methodological approach itself.
Feminist approaches or methodologies to the biblical text have changed also, both reflecting the field at large and the influence of the feminist perspective. It is in the area of methodological approaches that feminist studies, also exemplified in some of Bird's essays, needs more rigor. She states that in order to do this kind of study one must also look outside the biblical text to contemporary Near Eastern texts and ethonographic studies, which is limited. Bird's insistence that the Biblical period was more patriarchal than she originally suspected may reflect more of her own personal theology than methodological concerns. While there is nothing wrong with approaching the text from a particular perspective, it becomes problematic when the approach conveys ideas as scholarship that may be theologically grounded.