Religion And Religion, Gender Roles And Society

Compared to men, women are more likely to express a greater interest in religion, to have stronger personal faith and belief in live after death, and have a stronger personal religious commitment. Also to involve themselves more in religious rituals and worship e.g. they are more likely to attend religious services and they participate more in religious life generally. Bruce also found that women join or involve themselves with new religious movements and new age movements. Religion and religious ideology plays a part in maintaining the male domination over women that is found in many aspects of social life, achieved by religious ideas

Throughout most of documented history women of all cultures and civilizations have lived under patriarchal circumstances. In almost every religion and civilization women's status was not equal to that of a man's. Women in most cultures are looked at as subservient, obedient creatures that were put on this world for very few reasons, mainly to bear children and do what their husbands require of them. In fact, religions are a big part of the reason of this oppression due to the religion's reinforcement and justification of patriarchal conditions. In this week's selected readings from different aspects of Islamic, Byzantine Christian, and Western Christian cultures, it is very apparent as to how these three religions did reinforce and

Most religions argue that there is equality between sexes within their religious groups but there is further evidence to question this. In religious organisations they are mainly male dominated. In Orthodox, Catholism and Judaism women are all forbidden to

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,

These beliefs about the roles did not come out of nowhere. Confucius, the teacher of the religion of Confucianism, taught that women's roles were to look after the men in their families. Most did not question his teachings and continued to live with these “rules”. Not only the fact that they believed women were inferior to men and should stay at home, "people believed that women were both morally and intellectually inferior to men and thus needed men's control and guidance" (Tsai). While men were valued for their hard work and getting the money, women were disparaged because they “couldn’t live” without a man’s work.

In the case of religion and government, they are both ran by men, fundamentally men use these two establishments to further their own interests and make up rules, commandments, and laws to force women into marital “enslavement”.

Religion: this social institution can play a role in influencing gender norms because some religions believe that there are specific duties and roles for each gender. For example in an Islamic religion it is believed that women are to fulfill their duties as a wife and mother while the father is to be able to protect and financially support the family. In Christianity women are seen as unfit to be in the high roles of religion like being a priest.

From prehistory to 1450 CE, in many different and complex civilizations, religion has influenced the gender roles of many societies. From prehistory to 600 BCE, in Mesopotamia, women could own property, maintain their dowry, and even trade. However, from 600 BCE to 600 CE, in Rome, women were completely under the control of their paterfamilias. Than, from 600 to 1450 CE, in the Byzantine Empire, women were constrained to their homes, and when they went out, they had to wear veils over their faces. Religion influenced the gender roles of many societies and civilizations from prehistory to 1450 CE.

Religion is powerful in that it controls followers’ behaviours and beliefs throughout their entire lives; it is a form of social control. Catholicism is one of the most widely known religions influencing more than 2 billion people around the world (Ross). Within Catholicism not everyone are seen as equals; men have greater privilege than women. The bible and church are from a male’s point of view (Christ 86) and passages within the bible are used to enforce a sexual hierarchy. In fact, the oppression of women begins with the first story in Genesis about creation, which portrays females as being inferior to men and even of an evil nature. This one passage is the main source of justification of oppression of woman in the church (Daly 13).

Gender can be described as “the social attributes associated with being a woman or a man in a particular society” (Woodward, 2000, pp.47) A person’s gender is then determined by their sex which is “a biological classification”. (Woodward, 2000, pp.47) As gender is a social attribute the identities of people of different genders vary from society to society. For example, in many religions, women do not have place in the rituals of the religion as it is simply only for men to do. (Chryssides and Geaves, 2013, pp.331) As religions were formed in certain cultures this shows a clear divide caused by gender roles based on the cultural origin of the religion but also shows that this has an impact on the identities of the male and female members of the religion. This being that the males feel they have more authority over the females of the religion.

When talking about religion and gender, sociologists are interested in how the roles of both men and women differ from one another across many different religions. As with many aspects of the world, women generally are at a disadvantage, especially in the religious realm. Sex segregation plays a role in religion and gender. Women and men often hold positions of very different amounts of power.

women were subordinate to men (Lee). Women were treated as menials and slaves. When they

Religion, as defined by the High Court of Australia, is ‘a complex of beliefs and practices which point to a set of values and an understanding of the meaning of existence’ (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2005) and can be studied either substantively or functionally (Berger 1974:126). Substantive studies of religion fall predominantly in the realm of theology and are more concerned with defining religious beliefs; their historical accuracy; and the existence of supernatural entities (Holmes, Hughes & Julian 2007:425). Sociology however, concerns itself primarily with the relationship between religion and society, examining religion as a social construction (Van Krieken et al. 2010:350-1) and concerned only with the substance of

Upon losing the election to become the 45th president of the United States, Hillary Clinton gave a concession speech and told “all the little girls who are watching this...never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and to achieve your own dreams” (Clinton). While Candidate Hillary Clinton said these girls are “deserving of every chance,” our society may prove otherwise. Although women today are no longer denied basic rights such as voting, our patriarchal society still sets up barriers, which limit a woman’s ability to be considered equal to a man. Here, “equal” would be defined as being perceived in the same light for equal opportunities and outcomes. Similarly, Christian women today are not limited in the same ways they were in early Christianity; however, the Bible still presents women in subalternate roles, compared to men. In American society today, there are double standards in the way men and women are perceived that date back to “traditional” Biblical expectations of women being subservient to men.

Gender gives you power; males are considered more powerful in comparison to women as a result of their physical makeup. People also mistake what the Bible conveys about the male and female relationships. In the Bible, God states that men should be the head of the house and are responsible for anyone in his household; while women should take care and bring up the children and support the man. God intended this to be a balance of power between soft and strong. The Bible states in Ephesians 5:23-33 “Wives be subject to your husband.. Husbands love your wives.. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as they love their own bodies..He who loves his own wife loves himself;..” However, countless people misinterpret this description-because they