Holm and Bowker go as far as to suggest that religious organisations specially designed for women are the future. Modern Women’s movement will separate the two genders and therefore remove oppression, while also enhancing a woman’s sense of identity.
Inequality can be seen in many major, mainstream religions such as Christianity, the Bible states that God created men in “the image and glory of God”, whilst women were made for “the glory of men”. Furthermore most important biblical characters are male such as: Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. Whilst there are some biblical female characters such as Virgin Mary and eve, however these serve to reinforce patriarchal ideas regarding the danger of female sexuality and the virtues of motherhood. Islam is also inherently patriarchal the Qur’an states that “men are in charge of women”.
Women’s sexuality plays a major role in religion. Female bodies and sexuality are felt to be dangerous by many religions because they believe a woman’s presence may distract men from the important rituals. Bird points out that sexuality is important in most major religions. Also, some religions believe women pollute religious rituals because they menstruate and give birth. Whilst Roman Catholics are expected to be celibate, and Christianity and Islam are opposed to homosexuality.
Patriarchal attitudes to religion means women from different religions have been barred from serving as a priest until recently. In 1992 women have been allowed to become priests in the church of England, and have been allowed to be Rabbi’s since 1972. There has been a breakdown in gender associated jobs, this shows religion is a progressive force causing social change. However some Islamic groups, orthodox Judaism and in the Roman Catholic church continue to exclude women from their religious hierarchy.
Feminists believe religion is another factor in society that is used as a tool to oppress and control women. Mary Daly believes Christianity itself is patriarchal and argues that the Christian story eliminated other goddess religions. The decline of the goddess, the end to polytheism and adopting a male monotheistic God was the start of patriarchy in religion.
Despite feminists seeing religion as an agent of social control over women, religion isn’t all patriarchal. Considering, women are more religious than men, and figures show Islam have more female converts than male. Miller and Hoffmann report than women are more likely to express a greater interest and have stronger need for religion than men. Women are more likely to join New Religious Movements than men because they are more likely to experience poverty, on average a men get paid more than women mainly down to occupational segregation (the nature of a job) for example women are more likely to become nurses, whilst men are likely to become doctors. Those who experience economic deprivation are more likely to join sects. Glock and Stark identify a number of different types of deprivation that women are more likely to suffer than men. Therefore they join sects in search of salvation and enlightenment.
In conclusion there is evidence to suggest that religion can act as an agent of social control over women. For example in Orthodox Judaism women are strictly banned from religious ceremonies and aren’t allowed to read from the Torah scowl and the acceptance of women is a blasphemous deviation from the biblical truth. On the other hand religion can be seen as salvation for women. Watson researched the meaning of veiling, according to the Qur’an women should exercise religious modesty because their seductiveness can lead men astray. The hijab can be seen by some as a patriarchal motive to control women, whilst others believe it is highly liberating and is a form of protection from prejudice attitudes.
