A close look at Religious Studies and RE materials soon discloses
an almost total unawareness of the existence of women. But why
should one look separately at women and religion? Why not look
at men separately, too? Or, rather, why not deal directly with
religious teachings on people in general? Again, when one looks
at women’s studies courses and programmes, one often, too, notes
a surprising absence of concern for topics pertaining to religion.
Yet it is evident that in both past and present religious and
spiritual values have influenced and shaped people’s thoughts
and actions and affected their lives, not least the lives of women,
in many important ways. Even if not always plainly apparent at
first, many current issues in the secular debate about women —
women’s self-understanding, image, status and role in all institutions
of society — are often still directly dependent on religious teachings
and world views, even when these are sharply criticised and rejected.
Sexism by omission
There are several reasons for looking especially at women in
world religions. First of all there is the importance of women
and world religions as a subject in its own right, a subject that
has so far often been overlooked and ignored, not only in women’s
studies courses, but in RE too which has been described as practicing
sexism by omission through not considering women at all. But besides
being a subject worthy of consideration in its own right, the
study of women in world religions also relates to many other subjects
of the curriculum, whether English language and literature, history,
geography, multicultural studies, black studies, general studies,
economics or current affairs. How religions have affected and
shaped women’s lives, what place women have held in different
religions, what contribution they have made and still make to
religious life and practice, these are all important issues for
RE. They are also issues important for contemporary feminists
and issues of growing importance for the internal debates and
decisions of different religious institutions.
One cannot fully understand the rise of the women’s movement
in the early nineteenth century without looking at its religious
roots. The vision of universal equality, justice, love and peace
which inspired the early feminists was not only based on ideas
of the Enlightenment but was often nourished by biblical teachings
and by a strong religious commitment. The American women who worked
with great fervour for the abolition of slavery realised that
their conscience called them to strive with equal zest for the
abolition of the subordination and oppression of women found in
society and church alike. Christian and Jewish women, and black
women too, worked together as sisters of the spirit to bring about
a better life for all women. These historical roots of contemporary
feminism and the religious motivation of many early feminists
are often not sufficiently recognised. Nor are western people
always aware of the global and cross-cultural ramifications of
contemporary feminism which, far from being only an urban, western,
white middle-class phenomenon, has developed truly international
dimensions and is affecting the consciousness of people everywhere.
Many young women and girls growing up now have already internalised
the ideas, choices and changes of consciousness stemming from
the women’s movement without necessarily belonging to an organised
women’s group or wanting to be called a feminist. Religiously
committed women are raising voices of challenge regarding many
traditional religious teachings, but they are also rediscovering
the female side of their religious heritage which can be a source
of affirmation and strength.
A New Perspective
How do we approach the topic of women and world religions? First,
it is important to realise that this topic has not only a historical,
but also an important contemporary dimension. It is not simply
a question of adding women as yet another new theme to the RE
curriculum by describing what religions teach or have taught about
women. On the contrary, looking at women and world religions requires
a new perspective and raises new questions which affect the teaching
of other RE topics, too. Traditional religious teachings are set
in a patriarchal and androcentric framework, that is to say, they
are almost exclusively the creation of men who have taken their
experience as normative and universal without taking into account
the experiences and thoughts of women. To make a comparison here,
this exclusive, self-sufficient male stance is not so unlike the
exclusive religious attitude of some people towards other religions
whereas entering into dialogue requires a new attitude — one has
to listen and accord the other person’s position equal recognition
and respect (and the more one enters this path and the deeper
the dialogue grows, the more one receives and gives and the more
one grows humble about one’s own position). The dialogical approach
is not only needed among religions, but also between men and women
if we want to transcend an exclusive, patriarchal stance.
The existence of patriarchy has been a major focus of women’s
critique in contemporary feminism. The wider meaning of patriarchy
relates to theories of history and society and even of religion
which need not detain us here, but the word patriarchy is often
simply used to refer to an all-male power structure — a situation
which exists in most religions we know. Whilst the word patriarchy
is mostly applied in relation to institutions and attitudes, the
term androcentric is more applicable to thought structures and
language. It refers to a situation where the male experience is
without question taken as the universally valid human norm. This
is true of many religious teachings just as many religious institutions
are guilty of what some women theologians have called the sin
of sexism, i.e. the exclusion and subordination of women by not
recognising their contribution or marginalising their existence.
The Rise of the Modern Women’s Movement
The rise of the modern women’s movement has led to a critical
reconsideration of traditional religious teachings on women by
many contemporary women scholars and writers. In Britain this
is perhaps less obvous than in the USA where many colleges and
universities have specific women and religion programmes. Particularly
well known is the ‘Women’s Studies in Religion’ programme of Harvard
Divinity School, founded in 1973, and its publications. Women’s
new awareness and self-understanding makes them examine religious
data with specific attention to gender differences which in the
past remained unquestioned as people were mostly not conscious
of them, taking them as either natural or divinely ordained whilst
it has become clear to us today that the inequalities between
men and women have been historically created. The marginality
and frequent invisibility of women in religions is also apparent
in the way religions are studied and taught, and this includes
the teaching of RE in the classroom. This situation needs to be
criticised and changed if women are ever to gain true equality
of recognition and status.
Teaching on women in world religions involves more than a critique,
however. In the last few years more and more material has become
available either in the form of general surveys on women in different
religious traditions or in more specialised studies dealing with
women in one religious tradition or period, with women saints
and mystics, women’s religious rites or women’s spiritual quest.
So far, most material on women and religion has been concerned
with Christianity and Judaism as most women writing on religion
usually come from either of these two traditions, but there is
now also a growing body of publications dealing with women in
Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. If one wants to approach the topic
of women and world religions systematically and comparatively
rather than simply historically, three major perspectives can
be singled out for consideration. These concern both external
and internal aspects of religion and imply a progressive level
of depth and interiority:
1. What is women’s role and status in different
religious traditions and their institutions? What are the patterns
of participation or exclusion from ritual and liturgy? What religious
authority can women wield? Are women given equal status in the
religious life, i.e. in priesthood, monasticism or religious leadership?
Have women formed their own religious communities or created rites
of their own? It has been shown that generally women hold higher
positions in archaic, tribal and relatively non-institutionalised
religions than in the highly differentiated religious traditions
which have evolved complex structures and hierarchical organisations
over a long time. In both primal and ancient religions we find
the widespread presence of women magicians, shamans, healers,
visionaries, prophetesses and priestesses. Also, during the formative
period of a religion women often play a leading role or are closely
associated with the work of the founder whilst later they are
relegated to the background (see the women associated with the
work of the Buddha, Jesus or Mohammad for example).
2. How are women presented in religious language
and thought? What do different scriptures teach about women? Do
they project images of women which are strong and powerful or
debilitating? Does their language remain exclusive and androcentric,
emphasising the subordination of women, or does it express equality
and partnership? Are feminine symbols used, especially in relation
to an ultimate transcendent focus or in speaking about the experience
of God or the disclosure of the Spirit? In the Judaeo-Christian
tradition the whole theological ‘sexology’ under- pinning the
traditional exegesis of Genesis 1 and 2 and the teaching about
being created in the image of God have come under much scrutiny
by feminist theologians. Such work highlights the metaphorical
nature of all religious and theological language. In contrast
to Christianity, where the father model of God has been dominant
to the exclusion of almost all other models, Hinduism provides
us with one of the richest traditions regarding feminine perceptions
and embodiments of the Divine, whether in terms of the power of
shakti or celebrated in the forms of Ambaji or Durga or eloquently
praised as Great Goddess, the Mahadevi. This rich tradition provides
inspiring resources for teaching, but the wealth of female religious
symbolism in the Hindu tradition perhaps more than any other raises
the difficult, if not unanswerable, question of what is the relationship
between the realm of the symbolic and real women in day-to-day
life? As a Japanese woman student once pointed out to me, a religion
may have many goddesses but that does not necessarily mean they
enhance the actual lives and status of women. One can therefore
ask whether the symbolic in any way reflects empirical reality
or merely compensates for its deficiencies. However, the most
important issue is not what world religions teach about women,
thus defining them extraneously in a way women do not necessarily
understand themselves. It is true to say that in most religions
women are largely defined, and marginalised, in terms of their
sexual functions as wife and mother, rather than seen as beings
in their own right. Thus the third perspective is of special importance
and should be emphasised in teaching:
3. What is women’s own religious experience?
How far has it been reflected upon and integrated into the intellectual
articulations of religious doctrine and spiritual teachings? What
is the pattern of women’s religious lives, their experience in
the ordinary sense of day-to-day religious practice, but also
their extraordinary experiences as expressed in a rich tradition
of mystical and devotional literature? In an informal and largely
non-institutionalised way women saints and mystics have provided
much spiritual counsel, guidance and leadership through the ages,
and shining examples of this can be found in all religious traditions.
It comes as no surprise that women of spirit, women of spiritual
power or the power of holiness, exercise much fascination on contemporary
women as these women of the past provide strong role models in
terms of female identity, autonomy and strength. So far, the many
studies on religious experience have hardly paid any attention
to gender differences, but the comparative study of the writings
of female and male mystics, which is only in its infancy, raises
some new and challenging questions, not least for religious practice.
If rightly approached and sensitively explored, these perspectives
could provide much material for discussion in the classroom, especially
with older pupils. It is important not simply to teach about women
in different world religions and leave the presentation at the
descriptive level, but to analyse, question and discuss the issues
inherent in the material presented and thus to link the material
of the past to concerns of the present. Far too many people associate
the understanding of feminism in church and synagogue only with
the debate abut women priests and rabbis, and yet the issues are
so much wider and more complex. Pupils could explore some more
specialised work in feminist theology, whether Jewish or Christian,
or one might discuss the problems raised by both for their relationship
with each other. Yet another perspective, which I have explored
at length in book-form, concerns the explicit and implicit spiritual
dimensions found in contemporary feminism. Some writers even speak
of a ‘spiritual’ or ‘metaphysical feminism’, some of which may
be too inward-looking but much of which is closely interwoven
with urgent contemporary concerns about world peace, reverence
for life, non-violence and the search for a sound ecology.
A Bibliographical Guide
To mention a few helpful book titles for teachers and anyone
interested in gaining a better understanding of the relationship
between women and world religions: a first orientation and introduction
is provided by Nancy Falk’s article Women: Status and Role in
World Religions in the Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions
(edited by K. Crim, Nashville: Abingdon 1981) and Constance Budhanan’s
article on Women’s Studies in The Encyclopedia of Religion edited
by Mircea Eliade (London 1987; see vol. 15, pp.433 —440). In the
same Encyclopedia Rosemary Ruether has a thought-provoking essay
on Androcentrism (see vol. 1, pp.272—6).
Surveys on women in different religious traditions are found
in a number of books. Widely used is the small book by Denise
Lardner Carmody, Women and World Religions (Nashville/Tennesse:
Abingdon, 1979, available in Britain) and it could serve as a
textbook for older pupils. A more recent and far more substantial
work, but only suitable for teachers, is the volume edited by
Arvind Sharma, Women in World Religions (Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1987). Equally recommended can be the volume
of papers edited by Nancy A. Falk and Rita M. Gross, Unspoken
Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in Non-Western Cultures (San Francisco:
Harper and Row, 1980), but this may be difficult to find, whereas
this is not the case with the book edited by Pat Holden, Women’s
Religious Experience: Cross- Cultural Perspectives (London: Croom
Helm, 1983) which contains some especially good chapters on women
in Hinduism and Judaism. For a survey of women in Christianity
the earlier work by George H. Tavard, Women in Christian Tradition
(Notre Dame! Indiana and London: University of Notre Dame Press,
1973) is still worth consulting as it contains not only a historic
survey but analyses contemporary images of women in the Protestant,
Orthodox and Catholic tradition. For historical and contemporary
articles on women in Judaism the Reader edited by Elizabeth Koltun,
The Jewish Woman — New Perspectives (New York: Schocken Books,
1976) will be found wide-ranging and most stimulating (its bibliography
includes books for children). Equally stimulating are the contributions
by women from different faiths brought together by Diana L. Eck
and Devaki Jam, Speaking of Faith: Cross-cultural Perspectives
on Women, Religion and Social Change (New Delhi: Kali for Women
and London: The Women’s Press, 1986). I have edited a set of papers
on Women in the World’s Religions, Past and Present (New York:
Paragon House, 1987) which contains historical and theological
material; of particular interest are the chapters on women in
African traditional religions (not easily found elsewhere), on
women in the Hare Krishna movement, and on the rise of evangelical
feminism in American Christianity.
It goes beyond the scope of this article to discuss the many
publications which have appeared on feminist theology, a term
which on the other side of the Atlantic is understood to include
both Jewish and Christian works. The lively debates in feminist
theology are carried on in an ecumenical spirit and a classic
Reader which brings all these aspects together is that by Carol
P. Christ and Judith Plaskow (eds), Womanspirit Rising. A Feminist
Reader in Religion (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), available in
women’s bookshops in Britain. It makes an excellent source-book
and could be used with Sixth-formers. This is also true of the
following titles which, in different ways, survey developments
and debates in contemporary Christian feminism: Susan Dowell &
Linda Hurcombe, Dispossessed Daughters of Eve: Faith and Feminism
(London: SCM, 1981): Sara Maitland, A Map of the New Country,
Women and Christianity (London: Routledge & K~gan Paul, 1983);
Monica Furlong (ed.), Feminine in the Church (London: SPCK, 1984),
and Ann Loades, Searching for Lost Coins, Explorations in Christianity
and Feminism (London: SPCK, 1987), also suitable for use with
older pupils, perhaps even in conjunction with teaching English
literature, as the women figures discussed in this book include
among others Dorothy Sayers, Virginia Woolf and the author of
the first autobiography in English, the medieval mystic Margery
Kempe.
The wide-ranging debates surrounding women and spirituality are
perhaps best reflected in the large volume edited by Charlene
Spretnak, The Politics of Women’s Spirituality. Essays on the
Rise of Spiritual Power within the Feminist Movement (New York:
Anchor Press/Doubleday & Co., 1982) but probably difficult to
obtain. Essays reflecting the depth and variety of contemporary
women’s spiritual quest are found in Mary Giles (ed.), The Feminist
Mystic and Other Essays in Women and Spirituality (New York: Crossroad,
1982), Jo Garcia and Sara Maitland (eds.), Walking on the Water:
Women talk about Spirituality (London: Virago, 1983) and Linda
Hurcombe (ed.) Sex and God. Some Varieties of Women’s Religious
Experience (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987).
The many studies on religious experience have so far largely
ignored differences, and the close inter-relationship between
sexuality and spirituality requires far more attention than it
has been given so far. In this context it is of some importance
to know that the World Council of Churches is currently engaged
in a study on Female Sexuality and Bodily Functions in Different
Religious Traditions as this subject has great relevance for understanding
the image of woman in different world religions. For a general
overview on contemporary developments on women and world religions
including debates about feminist spirituality and theology readers
may refer to my book Women and Spirituality: Voices of Protest
and Promise (London: Macmillan, 1989). Of particular interest
to teachers may be my article on World Religions, Women and Education
in the journal Comparative Education vol. 23/1, 1987, pp 35—49
which was a special issue devoted to Sex Differences in Education.
These few titles give an idea of a new and exciting field of
studies which is growing larger every day. An effort is needed
to explore these new perspectives but if the effort is made, pupils
and teachers alike will soon realise that they will be amply rewarded
in both personal and educational terms. The subject of women in
world religions has much to offer and can enrich RE teaching in
many different ways. I very much hope that more and more teachers
will take up the challenge of this new perspective.
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