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Feminist Perspective on Religion

Liberal Feminists

Likely to aim for more equality for women within existing religions - seek to remove obstacles
preventing them from holding positions of authority (priests, religious leaders...)

Radical Feminists

See most existing religions as existing for the benefit of men, and either:
present a fundamental challenge to religion altogether
or seek to reshape it by recapturing the centrality of women in religion from early times.

Marxist Feminists

Emphasise the Marxist view that religion acts as the "opium of the masses"; focuisng on the
compensating of women, and the double explotation of w/c women.

EVIDENCE for patriarchy in religion: Religious Scriptures

women either invisible or occupy subordinate positions in most RS. E.g. Eve is formed from a
rib taken from a man. Jesus and his 12 disciples were male.

Aldridge on Religious Scriptures

In the Qur'an, women are legally inferior to men, lacking the same rights as their husbands.

De Beauvoir on Religious Scriptures

Argues that most scriptures in most religions suggest the "man is master by divine right".

EVIDENCE for patriarchy in religion: Barred from the priesthood.

Women are excluded from the priesthood (or equivalent) in the Roman Catholic church, Islam
and Hinduism. In Buddhism, female nuns are always given less status than male monks.

EVIDENCE for patriarchy in religion: The (stained)glass ceiling

Within religious organisations, women are oft found at the bottom of the career ladder, facing the
same galss celing barrier of prejudice and discrimination that stops them from rising higher up
the hierarchy.
Despite legal obstacles to the appointment of female bishops being removed in 2005, deep
opposition remains, and women face what is known as the "stained glass ceiling" that bars them
from progress to positions of authority in the church.

EVIDENCE for patriarchy in religion: Patriarchal Religious Doctrines

Feminist writers like Walby and de Beauvoir suggest that the doctrine/teachings of many of the
world's religions contain an ideology of the family, emphasizing women's traditional roles as
mothers & wives in the family. E.g. The Virgin Mary is seen as a submissive mother.

Barrett and Pryce

Suggest that Rastafarianism - a religion that appeals mainly to African-Caribbean men - involves
an assumption that women will take on the traditional roles of housewife & mother in the family,
which Rasta men believe will protect women from racial and sexual harrassment by white
society. However, such an apparent defence of women in effect gives power to men, by
discouraging women's more active engagement and participation in society.

EVIDENCE for patriarchy in religion: The vieling of women

Aldridge notes that the veiling of women in some Islamic cultures has been seen as a powerful
indicator of patriarchy.

EVIDENCE of patriarchy in religion: The portrayal of women as morally


polluting and corrupting. AND as sexual predators

Women's bodies, menstruation, and sexuality are often portrayed as "polluting" by many of the
world's religions. Sexuality is often presented as something that should only be linked to
reproduction. Aldridge notes that sexual pleasure, particularly for women, is disapproved or
outright forbidden in many religions: non-reproductive sexual acts are heavily condemned by
Roman Catholicism, and regrded by most Muslims and Conservative Jews as forbidden. This
then explains the Roman Catholic opposition to contraception.

https://quizlet.com/85319612/feminist-perspective-on-religion-sociology-beliefs-a2-
flash-cards/

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