Bhagavad Gita Women

When the Buddha first began the ‘enlightenment’ women were not allowed. Buddha’s reason for this was because of temptation, he believed that the monks would become distracted if women were allowed to join the Sangha. After a few attempts of petitioning, the Buddha allowed women to join, eventually allowing them to begin worshiping. Through this time, there were still monks that argued women were not supposed

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender plays a very significant role. While women were not the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of humans, they still had tremendous influence. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are male, women did not play a necessarily minor role. With all the women that play a role in the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender is a topic worthy of discussion.

This idea that men were the more powerful ones continued through history, during the time of British and American colonialism. In India even before the British arrived, there was oppression occurring towards the women of that nation because of religion. It played a large part in the inequality, because at the time, Islam and Hinduism both required women to play a submissive role in a relationship and left them with little to no rights. Females were seen as lesser human beings and practices such as “Sati...the act burning alive the widow of a Hindu man,...female infanticide, and child marriage” occurred, all of which was detrimental to whichever females were involved. Gender oppression was maintained because of the caste system, which was a patriarchal system that was used all throughout India, giving all power to men,

The position of women in Buddhism appears to be contrasting to the position of animals – as if women as more inferior than animals are in the tradition. In “Rupyavati Gives Away Her Breasts,” after Rupyavati’s selfless deed, everybody is amazed that a woman could be so giving and compassionate, offering up her own body for another. In shock that a woman possesses such bravery, the people who had gathered said, “’How your sharp intellect contrasts with your female sex!’” (p. 166). Clearly, the ethics and capability of women to perform selflessness were not acknowledged at the time, which is obviously due to cultural norms.

Since society has existed, women have been known as different from men. For the longest time, women have been known as the “weaker sex” when compared to the male. There purpose, especially in the olden days is to obey and please the men. However nowadays there seems to be a more equality between the two genders. But even today discrimination between male and female takes place all over the world. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, you can see a lot of discrimination between the two sexes. The story takes place in the 1930’s and it has a bad view on women, they just got the right to vote for presidents, mayors, and senators. However most men thought that the women should only stay home and raise children, that they should not be involved in politics, and their ideas were not valuable. Women were treated as “house slaves” at times when all what they did all day, every day, was work around the house trying to improve the living for their husband and kids.

Since society has existed, women have been known as different from men. For the longest time, women have been known as the “weaker sex” when compared to the male. There purpose, especially in the older days is to obey and please the men. However nowdays there seems to be a more equality between the two genders. But even today discrimination between male and female takes place all over the world. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, you can see a lot of discrimination between the two sexes. The story takes place in the 1930’s and it have a primitive view of women, they just got the right to vote for presidents, mayors, and senators. However most men thought that the women should only stay home and raise children, that they should not be involved in politics, and their ideas were not valuable.

•Christianity: Views of women differed greatly among Christian faith, ranging from traditionalist views "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord {Ephesians 5:22}," to a more modern view, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. {Galatians 3:28}." To summarize, males and females are equal spiritually, as they are in God's eyes. Socially, they are treated differently due to different genetic and biological factors. ​

“...And who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). Throughout all of history many women have been persecuted for simply being a woman. In many countries in the Middle East today,"persecution against women and girls includes frequent beatings, rapes, kidnapping of girls and forced marriages to their kidnappers, discrimination in education and jobs based on gender and religion, and much more." (Vessey) However, during the time of Esther, formerly known as Haddassah, women were actually treated with respect. Women were considered vital parts to society and were thought very highly of. Although many women in the Middle East suffer from brutal attacks frequently, archaeological evidence shows

This “fall” supports a male-dominated society in which women are subservient to men. In Genesis, this fall occurs when Eve eats the fruit and humans are expelled from the garden, “Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, ‘to till the ground from whence he was taken’” (“The Holy Bible”, Genesis, 3.23). Furthermore, in Shinto myth when Izanami dies she becomes enraged because Izanagi followed her to the underworld. Izanami screamed that she would “... destroy a thousand of earth’s inhabitants each day” (Hartz 17). In the Hindu myths, women are dangerous creations that prevent men from potentially overwhelming the gods. This can be seen in the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic, “… women were created by the Grandsire Brahman … There is no creature more sinful, O son, than women. Woman is a blazing fire. She is the illusion, … She is the sharp edge of the razor. She is poison. She is a snake. She is fire. She is, verily, all these united together” (“Mahabharata”, Anusasana Parva, 40). And, the role of women in subduing men is also seen, “ Persons of the male sex, yielding to the power of Lust and Wrath, sought the companionship of women” (“Mahabharata”, Anusasana Parva, 40). Strangely, women who are the bringers of life become the bringers of death and

Women and men are viewed differently since the beginning of time. The men were to be said the “head” of the house; they worked outside the house and brought bread to his family; while the women stayed inside their homes and did their chores and raised the children. The men had the privileges of studying and voting, but the women had to work hard to earn those privileges. Since beginning of time, woman was seen as the “weak link”, someone who did not have power over men, lead, think for herself or speak up. Nowadays, that has changed. Women are successful in whatever they do, they lead, they work, they vote; yet they still are viewed differently than men.

We start out with the use of the male dominated language in the Bible. Much of the development of Christianity has been primarily mostly by men, so our understanding of Christianity and the Bible may come from a more masculine perspective. Mainly men today translated the vast majority of Bibles available. To be honest, I never really gave this topic much thought as an adult before because I just assumed the obvious, that God is a male. All my life, from my parents, extended family, friends and church, this is what I have always been taught and exposed to. This just comes to show that the Bible just enforces the picture in our minds of a male figure since the beginning of time and in turn, we teach our future generations the same. Japinga states that,

When the bible speaks of women, rarely is the conversation characterized by a lack of respect for upstanding, God-fearing women who

As women are traditionally known to be child bearers, the society gives them the role of mother. This influences the type of work a woman can perform and the role she plays in the society. This conceptually distinguishes them from the male identity and masculine gender cannot acquire such roles within the society in that biologically, a man cannot bear children due to the hormonal states involved. This clearly makes childbearing to be a famine identity and the society to identify the role of masculine identity in the society. As most traditions believe that women are more of able to nurture as compared to men so feminine gender role is to care for the family by dedicating her full time rather than employment outside the home.

The low status of women and girls is due to cultural beliefs and the material cost they represent to their families. Vanaja Dhruvarajan says that there is a belief regarding the nature of men and women: "Men are ritually pure, physically strong, and emotionally mature; women, on the other hand, are ritually pollutable, physically weak, and lack strong willpower" (30). Because of these

Women's Status in Islam In Islam, women and men are equal in terms of their relationship with Allah. It can be clearly seen that Allah has created men and women differently, this is so that they may fulfil different purposes in life. It is not a question of the superiority of one gender over another, rather it is a matter of role differentiation. Islam teaches that men and women complement one another and are both equally important.