SOC211 WEEK 12 Presentation on Women and Religion

1. I. Carlson
SOC211

2.  Gender and gender roles in world religions
 Women’s roles in religious institutions
 Why do women join or stay in religious communities
in which they are clearly subordinate to men?
 Why, on average, are women more religious than
men?
 Feminism and religion
 First-, second-, and third-wave feminism and religion

3.  Hitchens
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmJDAzgvp6o&t=3s
 Harris
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnqlrBhzzwY

4.  What do sacred texts teach about women?

5.  God is mostly presented as male (Jesus Christ is “God made
flesh” in the male sex.)
 Catholicism provides more room for female figures: the
Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus
 Protestant Reformation: the masculinization of
Christianity
 Women have been seen as subordinate to man in both
creation and in daily life (origin myths; Saul/Paul; Martin
Luther)
 Equality between the sexes has been taught regarding
salvation (both sexes have souls and both can be “saved”)

6.  God is mostly presented as male
 At times God is represented through feminine images
and the feminine image of Sophia (wisdom) is
important
 Hierarchical structure that subordinates women to
men
 Women have been seen as subordinate to man in both
creation and in daily life (origin myths)

7.  Like Judeo-Christianity, the spiritual equality of women and men is recognized
 Some Hadiths characterize female companions of the prophet in a positive way
 However, some Hadiths describe the “nature of women” in a negative way
 “the testimony of a woman is worth half of that of a man” because women are
deficient in intellect
 Women are prohibited from leadership roles
 Ideal marriage is based on complementarity not equality (men have the power
and men protect and maintain women; women obey; women may be
“punished” physically)
 Islamic feminist Riffat Hassan explains negative attitudes toward women in
Muslim societies are based on the following assumptions:
 Man is the origin of creation
 Women are defined as temptresses
 Women were created as a means for men
God is mostly presented as male

8.  In the Vedas, the gods are mostly male, which reflects a
patriarchal society
 In Hinduism only the pure can reach spiritual freedom:
higher-caste men are the only people who can achieve the
required level of purity
 Women are connected to impurity (negative) whereas men
are connected to purity (positive)
 “Impure” menstruating women cannot cook nor enter a
temple
 However, Hinduism has a strong tradition of goddess
worship
 The divine cosmic energy (Shakti) is female
 The great Goddess Devi is female, the mother of the universe

9.  Origins traced to Guru Nanak (b. 1469)
 He denounced sati (burning of widows), veiling, and
beliefs in menstrual “pollution”
 In his community women and men had relatively
equal status, but then…
 The Tenth Guru founded in 1699 the Khalsa, an elite
brotherhood; a new emphasis on masculine (and
militant) features
 Sikh scriptures uphold elements of gender equality
although the religion is still affected by its long history
of masculine emphasis

10.  The Buddha taught that spiritual freedom (nirvana)
could be achieved by women and men (unlike in
Hinduism)
 After the Buddha, two strands developed
 One was anti-woman: women were presented as ugly,
blind, wretched, with enormous sexual appetites (men
were noble, loyal, generous and holy)
 Other was not anti-woman: there are female deities,
enlightenment is available to both
 Today, various strands of Buddhism exist and have
different views about women and women’s status

11.  Within traditional religions, women and men tend to
view God and faith differently
 For men, God is about power and judgment (and God is
a personal God)
 For women, God is about love and community (and the
nature of God is uncertain)
 Women have formed various alternative pathways for
exploring religion outside of traditional religions
 Feminist Chrisitianity/Judaism/etc; Wicca; Goddess
worship

12.  Women’s roles vary greatly depending on the type of
religion being practiced (orthodox, conservative, liberal)
 Some women in all traditions see themselves as relatively
secular and act accordingly (while being believers)
 Some women play important leadership and community
roles, typically in more liberal strands of traditional religions
 Other women, typically in conservative communities, have
more restricted (and subordinate and limited) roles
 Generally, women in the West (no matter in which religion)
play more powerful and prevalent leadership roles than in
non-Western countries

13.  Scholars argue that these traditions may attract women for a variety
of reasons
 Some women, in times of great change, look for a type of certainty and
stability of traditional roles
 Some women are attracted by the clear delineation (definition) of
distinct and conventional roles for men and women, and of the patterns
for nuclear family life

14.  Social and contextual reasons:
 Because women are socialized to be more submissive,
passive, obedient, and nurturing than men, women are
more religious (gender-socialization theory)
 Because women tend to have lower participation rates in
the labor force, women have more time for religious
activities; and women’s involvement in raising children
leads them to be more religiously involved (structural
location theory)
 Individual, psychological reasons:
 Individuals who are more feminine are also more
religious

15.  Feminists (Western feminists, in particular) have
claimed that religiously active women have “false
consciousness”
 They lack a true understanding of themselves and the
oppressive forces of religion

16.  19th century movements for women’s rights in North
America and Europe that essentially promoted
equality between the sexes
 First-wave feminist movements were both opposed to
in some ways and, in other ways, intertwined with
religion
 For example, the Temperance Movement (anti-alcohol)
was based in religious movements
 Thus, religious movements provided models that
women later adopted for political movements

17.  1960s and 1970s movements against “patriarchy”
 Many feminists (mostly scholars) at this time criticized
Christianity and attempted to form a feminist (and feminine)
theology
 Most famous example: Mary Daly, The Church and the Second Sex,
1978
 Later scholars pointed out weaknesses in these studies:
 They focused on Christian symbolism rather than practice within
religious organizations
 They used the concept of “patriarchy” to describe many different
phenomena
 They looked at religious women as victims
 They presented men and women as fundamentally different beings
(women were positive, men negative); in other words, they
essentialized both men and women

18.  1990s+ movements that explore gender as a social
construction
 Gender differences are seen as flexible, complex, and only
loosely connected to the body (that is, biological sex)
 And because women are not all “one,” there cannot be just
one feminism—there must be several types
 Third-wave feminists (mostly scholars) have looked at how
religion may benefit women and men; women are not seen
as just victims
 Religion is seen as not just “purely patriarchal”—it can be
oppressive but it can also provide empowerment and
resources to those involved

19.  Topic: Gendered violence in Canada and beyond