Women's Roles in the Postclassical Period by Religion Essay

“The world is still sexist.” — Barbara Broccoli. From the creation story to modern day, women and men still struggle with a power dynamic of inferiority and superiority. The problem of sexism has been ever-present throughout history, and although it has been acknowledged by many, it has not been eradicated or resolved. Although the acknowledgment of sexism has grown over the course of the modern era, it is heavily rooted in society’s developmental process, which makes it continuously difficult to annihilate. Furthermore, throughout many historical texts, women are often represented as objects instead of real people. Within texts, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah, women are constantly regarded as inferiors instead of equals with men. Throughout these texts, there is a clear separation between the treatment of men and women, with women always being referred to as property.

We as Americans are so egocentric when we look at other cultures. Some critics would argue that the Islam’s holy book the Quran degrades women extremely. As we discuss before, most Muslims dismiss the scripture that degrades women. For example: “The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females”) (Quran 4;11). This is not accepted in modern Islam, and is big misconception with westerners. From the Quran, “Whoever does good, whether male or female, is a believer, will enter the Garden of Paradise” (Quran 40:39) They have same opportunity as men and women do in the United States of America.(Source 10) The bible also have verses that degrade women ,and some extremist Christians go by this scripture too. The bible states "Let the women

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.

Islam and Daoism are influential forms of thought that serve as the focal point of their respective cultures, influencing social interactions within their religious following. From an analysis of both holy and secular literature involving rules concerning marriage, an understanding of the cultures structuring can be derived as well as the degree to which each values femininity and masculinity. While neither of the forms of thought can truly be said to be egalitarian, women in Islamic cultures enjoyed a greater degree of agency in relation to their Daoist counterparts. This implicates that Islam has developed a culture that places a greater social value upon femininity in relation to Daoism. The Daoist perspective paints a much bleak

Throughout history women have been treated rather immorally, this is a persistent issue that women today continue to face. The Postclassical era was a time of incredible cultural achievements, but behind all these fulfillments how were women treated? Women were expected to oblige by men their entire lives revoking any appreciation towards them. Women of the post classical era had not received appropriate treatment unlike men, instead they were treated as though they were half of what a man was. Taught to live by and cater to men as a wife, mother, and daughter. Religion and culture caused the leverage of conduct women faced, due to the lack of significance they had in ancient times.shud

As societies began to shift ideologies and practices, people either embraced it or rebelled against it. In the early 20th century, Middle Eastern countries were challenged with modernizing. The amount of influence from the modern west brought much debate and controversies. Two topics of debate were religion and gender. Both were significant, but religion was a more dominant topic of debate since everything they debated was tied to religion including gender. Religion and how it should be implemented became a topic of dispute politically, socially, and economically as modernism took charge.

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).

The structure of the existing religious institutions focuses on promoting leaders who validate the need to promote the male domination, and stifle those who fail to comply. This practice is common in the Muslin world, extreme religious interpretation being used to oppose them. "They enshrined their gentleman 's agreement in the realm of the sacred by elevating their religious family laws to state laws. Women and children were the inevitable chips with which the political and religious leaders bargained." (Fisher).

When we explore Christianity it is one of the more broadminded and gradually developing religions, especially concerning gender roles. However this can mainly be seen within western cultures as recently women within the church of England are able to become bishops whereas many other socities still remain in past ideologies as stated by Hans King that “negative attitude to contraception, abortion and divorce”(Hans King, 1995, page 1) are still noticeable opinions and judgements which exist in both the east ans west. This inequality which exists within the church is often debated as within the following of the bible and Jesus’s own belief that all people are equal. Thus begging the question as to how this patriarchal system was created. There is the belief that if god is male then this provides a right of status for a hierarchy structure. This may continue into Catholisism where contraception is highly frowned upon and abortion is rejecting gods gift of life which once again results in an awkwards and uncomfortable situation for women of this faith.

In conclusion, there are significant similarities and differences in the role of women in the Judaism, Catholicism and Islam religions. These roles include the position they hold in their religion, the ability to bear witness, the ability to own property and the perspective of each religion on vows as well as the major duties of a wife in a family. However, despite the differences, these religions belief that God is the creator of the universe and humanity.

In the book Women and Spiritual Equality in Christian Tradition, by Patricia Ranft, a new and innovative look at the role of women in the sphere of Christianity is examined. In a total of twelve chapters, the Central Michigan University professor discusses the role that women played in the first fifteen hundred years of Christianity and she disputes the contention that the church was traditionally misogynistic. She writes in her introduction, “that within Christianity there exists a strong and enduring tradition that maintains the spiritual equality of women," (xi) and she takes this idea a step further to support her thesis by writing that there is no foundation to the argument that “Christianity was largely responsible for western misogynism,” (ix). Instead, she tries to show that these misogynistic tendencies stemmed not from Christianity, but from the surrounding secular cultures. Throughout the text, Ranft will be attempting to show the reader that women maintained more spiritual equality with men before the modern era. However, it is the author’s intention in the book "merely to document the presence of a tradition of women 's spiritual equality throughout the centuries," (xii) not to provide analysis of this presence.

Major Claim: In this week’s readings, the topic of religion is discussed in regards to how it informs women. As mentioned, religion can be a source of security and empowerment for women while others feel differently and oppressed by it. We will explore both sides of religion and discuss how certain institutions in society are governed by religious opinion.

Patriarchal monotheism can explain why women are seen as inferior to men; this goes as far back as 3,500 years when Judaism was founded to present day. Judaism was the first patriarchal monotheistic religion, but definitely not the only one; following it was Christianity, then Islam. Taking a more in depth look at Islam, the stories “The Answer Is No”, “House of Flesh”, and “Another Evening at the Club” demonstrates the aggressive patriarchal society women of Islam face and how these women seem to challenge these stereotypes.

The role of women in religious scripture dictates an inferior position in society. Beginning with the creation of Adam and then Eve, as his helpmate. Her purpose was that Adam would not be lonely. This origin provides the ground work for inequality of genders on the basis of religious scripture. The roles prescribed determined that women should be in a subordinate position to man. The female role and relationship with God is defined by the various books of the Old and New Testaments, the reported actions of Jesus Christ, and finally the Qur'an.

During the semester we discussed many religions and their views of women and how they treat the women of these religions. Some are treated equally but some are not treated that way. Throughout this essay I am going to discuss how women of the Hindu, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islamic religion are treated.