The Question Of Whether Women Can Grow From Their Religion

However there are arguments that not all religions treat women unequally. Reform Judaism allows women to become Rabbis since 1972 and in Sikhism women are allowed to hold office and recently female vicars have been allowed into the Church of England. Women largely

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

Throughout centuries of human existence, women have been deemed as inferior to men in multiple different cultures and religions. Men have developed a norm to be the individual who carries out duties to help maintain a stable life for himself and the family in which he is providing for. Because of this fundamentalist approach towards how society should be, women’s rights have been suppressed throughout political, social, and cultural actions. The Islamic religion in particular, is fond of abusing the rights of women and empowering the rights of men in such a way that it has created a permanent existence of conflict within countries who follow Islam. In fact, in the Quran it states that women must have lesser authority than men, therefore their

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”.

For example, if a women decided to become a doctor, this would be impossible because she wouldn’t be able to operate on her patient if she was wearing the required dress. Although the Quran states that women are equal to men, there are also man made books, called the Hadith, which put women on the same level as animals. As stated in the Hadith, “Women are naturally, morally and religiously defective.” Although this may sound odd, the more traditional Muslims prefer the Hadith, over the Quran even though it is their religious book.

Gender Issues in Religion Amongst the world religions are many different attitudes towards gender issues and sexuality. A hundred years ago, or even a lot less, these different perspectives did not exist, as they were often considered unimportant, as King noted 'until recently little attention has been paid to gender differences and their impact on religious teaching and practice. '[1] With some religions, their scriptures are considered to be infallible and therefore not to be questioned.

and obey the word of God just as much as men are, but they still are denied the

There are many political, religious, and cultural factors that shape the lives of Islamic women many of them are completely different than factors in the lives of American women. Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions; however, Brooks argues that “Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of this once liberating faith.” The book also shows these factors have slowly been taking away women’s rights, rather than furthering them.

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.

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 in the gender stereotyped role is more expressive and nurturing for examples their role as a mother, expectation to take care of elderly/ disabled. Moreover, female are socialized into submissive/passive/obedient/nurturing which are compatible with religiosity (Miller & Hoffman) Greeley (1992) – women’s nurturing skills are required by the religion. Since women have those skills, they translate these skills into religious believing. For example, Christianity attracts more women as women see the concept of love and care offered by the religion which attracts more non-working class women who primarily roles  mainly on childcare (Steggerda, 1993)

Religion goes hand in hand with culture, and in the Muslim countries this is very apparent. The cultural importance of men over women may have stemmed from religion, however it was further recognized when imperialist countries introduced capitalism and class divides. “Islam must combat the wrenching impact of alien forces whose influence in economic, political, and cultural permutations continues to prevail” (Stowasser 1994, 5). Now, instead of an agrarian state where both men and women had their place, difficulties have formed due to the rise in education and awareness that women can and do have a place in society beyond domestic living Though women are not equal to men anywhere around the

Religion can be seen to act as a social control over women to a large