Gender and Religion

3 Reasons why women are more likely to join sects and cults (Stark and Bainbridge)

They act as compensation for ethical, organismic, social deprivation

Ethical: women tend to be more morally conservative and so see the world in moral decline so share the view held by sects and cults

Organismic: women tend to be more ill so religion is used for healing

Social: Sects and cults attract more to poorer and women are more likely to be poorer than men

What is the main function of religion according to feminists?

Maintain patriarchy and oppress women

status quo

Which sociologist spoke about maintaining the patriarchy? Include the outline, examples and evaluations

Daly - Men control the narrative through the bible, cannot be equality until accepted that God could be a woman

Examples- Male God, restricting top levels of the church, depicting women as impure of bad

Evaluation: Woodhead - Hijab can be used for respect

Which sociologist argued about second class believers?

Simone De Beauvoir - Religion tricks women into thinking that they are equal, rewarded in the afterlife for suffering, worshipping a male God, socialised to unconsciously view men as superior.

Examples - Holm argued segregated places of worship, not allowed to touch sacred text if menstruating, women are placed on periphery of the place of worship

Evaluation - Not applicable to all religions, Quakers there is a commitment to gender equality, women allowed to be bishops in 2014

Who argued for the staines glass ceiling?

Armstrong - Women are blocked off from top positions. She studied CofE.

Example - Allowing female bishops was very strongly opposed by traditionalists

Evaluation - El Saadawi argued that religion isn’t patriarchal but culture is. Men hold all the power in arab culture so they hold positions. She said that the Quran is interpreted to support this.

Define conservative force

Maintains or seeks to restore traditional beliefs and values and maintain status quo

Define agent of socialisation

People in society which teach the norms and values to the next generation

In which way are religious scriptures patriarchal?

Beauvoir - “man is master by divine right”

women are insubordinate to men

What did Aune say about women’s participation decline:

Feminism - Led women to questioning the role of women within society and religious organisations

Changing role of women - Women take on paid work which takes up a lot of time (triple shift mention) so they have less time for religion

Changing family relationships - Contemporary society has growing diversity in the family and roles are often disapproved by traditional churches

What did Woodhead say about identity and religion?

Home centred - women who stay at home, more likely to engage in traditional religion as they have conservative values and may need more support due to their lack of status

Work centred - women who work in demanding jobs are more likely to be secular as they lack time and cannot relate to how women are portrayed in religion

Jugglers - Women who balance work and family life seek some sort of spiritual experience or guidance, more likely to be in NAM as they require less commitment and are more individualistic

Reasons for gender and religiosity

Gender role socialisation

Miller and Hoffman - Women are more religious because they are socialised into traits like empathy and submissiveness

Reasons for gender and religiosity

Gender life expectancy

women live longer than men and are more likely to be widowed therefore need a larger support network

Evaluations of patriarchal religions

• Female Godessed were equally worshipped equally in Greece and Rome

• Changes in monotheistic religions like bishops quakers (Aldridge)

• Religion can be used as resistance to the patriarchy - modesty against male gaze