Critically assess the relationship between, gender, religious participation and religious organisations (33 Mark)

Statistics have shown that women tent to be more religious than men across most cultures globally. This is reflected by the Church Census records as it shows that participation in churches and denominations in England and Wales between 1979 and 2005 women were consistently more likely to attend. There are various reasons why females are more religious than men ranging from socialization, exploitation to patriarchy in traditional religions.

Women’s sexuality has always been a dangerous factor in religion; this is because women menstruate and give birth they are considered to have a great capacity to pollute religious rituals. This can be seen in the Adam and Eve story in Christianity as Eve has ‘seduced’ Adam in order to eat the apple which God had forbidden to do so. This shows that the presence of a female can distract men from performing religious rituals and worshipping God. Bird argues that sexuality is an important factor in many religions. In Roman Catholic churches priests are expected to be celibate meaning they have to deliberately refrain from sexual activity while in other religions such as Islam are opposed to homosexuality. This means that in order for priests to carry out their duty appropriately there needs to be a degree of policing of the body; and the presence of women makes it more difficult.

Due to patriarchal ideologies women have refrained from serving as priests in many of the traditional and great religions – until recently. Religious organisations such as Islamic groups, Orthodox Jews and the Roman Catholic Church maintain to exclude females from religious hierarchy. Even though, women ministers have been accepted in some sects and denominations the Church of England continued supporting inequality of gender until 1992 when the general Synod finally voted to allow the ordination of women. Simon and Nadell conducted in depth interviews with 32 female rabbis and 27 female members of the Protestant clergy about women’s position in religious organizations. When asked if the female rabbis conducted their duties differently from the male rabbis nearly all of the women responded ‘yes’. They viewed themselves as less formal, more people orientated and more inclined to touch and hug. However, this can be a result of gender socialization as females are taught to be more submissive, obedient and nurturing than males. This also reflects back to Davie arguing that men and women tend to view God in differently as females see God more as a god of love, comfort and forgiveness whereas men see God more as a god of power and control.

Many Christian feminists argue that there will never be gender equality in churches if the idea of ‘God’ is continued to be associated with masculinity. Mary Daly argues that Christianity itself is a patriarchal myth as it eliminates other ‘goddesses’ in religion. Simone de Beauvoir has a more Marxist approach to the position of females in religion as she argues that religion gives women the false belief they will be compensated for their suffering on earth and their second-class status by equality in heaven. El Sadaawi a Muslims feminists does not blame religion it self for its oppressive influences on women but puts the blame on the patriarchal domination of religion that came with the development of monotheistic religions. She argues further that these religions drew inspiration and guidance from the patriarchal and class societies at the time. This means that men wrote their scriptures and the interpretations they drew from it were mostly male orientated. Therefore, many people misunderstand religion as men of the contemporary society misinterpreted the scriptures which enabled them to abuse power.

In the 14th century the Catholic Church females who treated illnesses without any special training would be declared as witches; who therefore were executed. This could be because the traditional remedies discovered by women were seen as a threat to the emerge of male dominated medical profession.

However, it shouldn’t be assumed that all religions are equally oppressive to women and there have been some successful challenges to the patriarchal structure of organized religion. One of the changes is that there has been gender neutral language introduced in hymns and prayers. Judaism has allowed women to become rabbis in its non-orthodox denominations since 1972. However, there is still a restriction in Orthodox denominations as they still don’t tolerate female rabbis. Leila Badawi has challenged the negative attitude to the female position in Islam as she argues that there are aspects of Islam that are positive for women such as them being able to keep their family name after they get married. However, paganism from which many New Age religions emanate, remains the most female friendly approach to religion as God is a mixture of male and female.

Even though, religion might be viewed as patriarchal women still remain more religious than men. Miller and Hoffman report that women are more likely to express a greater interest in religion, have stronger personal religious commitment and attend church more often. However, statistical evidence has shows that in the last 20 years women started to leave the church at a faster rate than men. According to Brierley between 1989 and 1988 more than 65000 women were lost from churches each year.

Aune et al. has identified various reasons for the decline in church attendance and why certain women in particular are not going to church as much. Firstly, as fertility rates have declined women are having fewer children which means the older generation lost from the church isn’t being replaced. Secondly, women are more likely to pursue a career which means that they have to juggle between employment, childcare and housework which give them limited amount of time to attend university. Moreover, churches seem to be less tolerant of family diversity, such as singleness and lone parent families, which means that these type of families are ashamed to attend churches. Lastly, the church’s ambivalence towards sexuality is driving women to leave church as they feel that they are required to be silent about sexual desire and activity.

Miller and Hoffman identified two main theories explaining women’s greater religiosity. Firstly, differential socialisations as women are taught to be more submissive and passive than men and these characteristics are associated with being more religious. Secondly, structural location which is the view that women take more part in religion because of their social roles. Men are more likely to be taking the instrumental role while women are more likely to take the expressive role of being a housewife and bringing up the children. This in result gives women more time for church related activities.

Therefore, as there has been a great decline in church attendance of females how can this correspond to the statistical evidence given that women are more religious than men; this is because women join sects and cults more than men. Bruce has suggested that the ratio of female-to-male involvement of sects and cults is 2:1. Those joining sects might be because of the likeliness of them experiencing economic deprivation at one point of their life.

Moreover, Stark and Bainbridge argue women participate in New Age Movements because of the compensators for social, organismic and ethical deprivation that religion offers as women are more likely to need a ‘theodicy of disprivilege’. In pre-Christianity era pagan religions were in the increase which acknowledged and worshipped goddesses. This allowed females to have a status in society. After the emerge of Christianity females were vanishing from religion making them less important. As a result from this society moved from a polytheistic to a monotheistic society. Therefore, women felt they lost their status and had to turn to a religion which acknowledged this. This is why females are more likely to join NRM’s than men as they want to restore the balance between the two genders.

Davidman explored the reasons why culturally advantaged North American women were converting to Orthodox Judaism. Davidman concludes that this is because Orthodox Judaism offers a clear distinction between the sexes which becomes attractive to women as they value their roles as wives and mothers. Also women are seen as central in the Jewish religious world and are given special status. Women are now finding it stressful to work, take care of their children and provide emotional care all at once. Religion acts as a mechanism of adjustment and helps women deal with their stress as orthodox Judaism provides compensation by giving women certainty and a status.

Feminist such as Daly argue that religion is infused with patriarchal ideology and unlike functionalists do not believe that religion creates values consensus and social solidarity. Religious organisations such as the Roman Catholic Church might be patriarchal because they have barred women from serving as priests. In addition religious countries run by the Shariah law such as Saudi Arabia restrict women’s behaviour by laws such as women having to wear the niqab and not being allowed to work. However religion is not always necessarily patriarchal. For example Judaism has allowed women to become rabbis in non- orthodox denominations. Also in Christianity from 1992 women are allowed to become priests. Lastly in Islam women are allowed to become priests.

Heelas identifies 3 main responses by women to religion: work centred, home centred and jugglers. Work centred women are professional women who have no time to go to church as they have too many other demands on their time due to their high pressured. Whereas home centred women are women whose religion still plays an important role as they feel they are supported in their decision to take on the expressive role full time. Finally jugglers are women who come from a family of dual earners and may suffer from role conflict in terms of their jobs and family commitments.

Glock and stark identify three types of deprivation in addition to economic which they believe all apply more to women. They first identify social deprivation: a lack of power and prestige, women in unsatisfying lower middle-class jobs may experience lack of power in employment. Secondly organismic deprivation; women are more likely to suffer mental and physical health problems because of domestic violence that they experience at home and the stress of doing the triple shift. Therefore women are more likely to turn to sects in hope of being healed or as an alternative for drugs or alcohol. Lastly ethical deprivation: women are more likely to see the world as suffering a moral decline therefore they are more likely to join introversionist sect that separates itself from the world such as Jim jones peoples temple.

Cults can relate more to our inner world and involve personal development. People join cults for pragmatic reasons (want to acquire personally beneficial practical outcomes) in order to better themselves. Women are more likely to join because of this reason as they feel the need to better themselves more than men as they are more critical of themselves because of how the media portrays them and because they feel pressure to be a good wife and mother.

According to Heelas and Woodhead there has been a rise in the number of women in America converting to Orthodox Judaism. They believe that more women are becoming attracted to a more traditional and fundamentalist style of religion and way of life. This is because they are attracted by the status in the home that it provides them with and also because they want to remove the ambiguities of modernity as they perceive them as well as there not being role conflict as there is clear distinction between sexes.

Religious fundamentalism is seen as a return to traditional gender roles. The traditional roles that are taken by women is the expressive role which means that women`s roles centre around childbearing and the home. Whereas men take on the instrumental role meaning that they are the breadwinners. Fundamentalist groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan oppress women by passing on laws such as women not being allowed to work and women not being allowed to go out without a mahram (a man which a woman has a relationship with).

According to Greely women`s levels of religiosity rise after they marry and have children. This is because once they have a partner and children they have people to care of and they take responsibility for their welfare. He argues that women are more involved in caring than in practical responsibilities and caring tends to be associated with a more religious outlook.

Radical feminist argue that religion is made up of patriarchal ideology which is used to oppress women. They believe that society should go back to older religions that focused on women. Whereas liberal feminists want women to equality in religion and believe that the differences between men and women are not natural and that they are due to men and women being socialised differently. Finally Marxists feminists believe that religion reinforces gender roles which benefit capitalism. However feminists has been criticised for ignoring improvements of women in some religious organisations. For example since 1992 women have been able to become ordained Anglican ministers.

Overall, it can be argued that not all religions are equally oppressive to women and there have been some successful challenges to the patriarchal structure of organised religion. For example the requirement in the Christian marriage ceremony for the bride to promise to obey her husband is now optional.