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THE HISTORICAL AND MODERN-DAY ROLE OF WOMEN IN RELIGION
The three major world religions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism each worship
a supreme, all-knowing and all-seeing deity as the preeminent power in the universe.
God and Allah are each credited with having created the universe and the forms that
populate it, and most significantly with the creation of mankind. Created to guide their
believers in the appropriate ways to live their lives and interact with each other and the
world around them, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam construct their religious credos
around the concept of a single figure creating and ruling the heavens and the earth.
While the Jewish deity does not possess a specific gender, the Christian and Islamic gods
are perceived as male personas. Thus the most basic element of these two religions, the
main god credited with the creation of the entire world, religion, and human race,
excludes to a large extent the feminine influence. Aside from the construction of the
nature of God and Allah, these religions construct gender identities and boundaries for
men and women that limit the capacity of both, and especially of women. Although
women often played an influential role in the early years of these religions, their
influence is either ignored, or valued solely for its knowledge of matters of the house and
family, thus beginning a cycle of undervaluing the full potential of women and
disempowering them within the religious hierarchy that only in recent years have efforts
by modern women in religion begun to break.
Islam, Christianity and Judaism each share many fundamental tenets in their
religious theology, including the nature of God, the guidelines for exemplary and sinful
behavior of constituents, the structure of the afterlife, and the nature of life on earth.
Although the details of each creation myth differ marginally, the basic concept
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consistently describes an omnipotent being who creates, out of night and nothingness,
light and matter. Genesis, of the Torah and the Bible, states that “In the beginning God
created heaven and earth. The earth was without form and empty, with darkness on the
face of the depths, but God's spirit moved on the water's surface. God said, 'There shall
be light,' and light came into existence. God saw that the light was good, and God divided
between the light and the darkness.” The creation of the earth and it’s plant and animal
inhabitants occurs over a period of six days, and on the seventh “God said, 'Let us make
man with our image and likeness. Let him dominate the fish of the sea, the birds of the
sky, the livestock animals, and all the earth - and every land animal that walks the earth.'
God [thus] created man with His image. In the image of God, He created him, male and
female He created them.” The creation story of the Qur’an occurs in a similar fashion,
over six days. It begins with Allah ordaining the creation of the earth and heavens from
nothing, as stated in Chapter 36, Ya-Seen, “A token unto them is the dead earth. We
revive it, and we bring forth from it grain so that they eat thereof,” and then in Chapter
41, Fussilat, it describes how “Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said
unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come,
obedient.” God and Allah thus create the earth out of a lack of matter, and create the
humans to populate it out of the same lack of being. Thus at the most basic level men
and women arise out of the same substance. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism each claim,
at a fundamental level of religious theology, that all human beings appear as equal before
God/Allah. The basic religious theology of each religion consists in the concept of a
supreme god figure, that created the earth and mankind to serve him. Human beings are
expected to follow the religious rules and guidelines laid down by this god and by his
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prophets on earth, and only by following these teachings may they hope to join the god in
heaven after their death. Although people may expect to be punished for sinning, and
they may elicit the displeasure of God and Allah by committing sinful behavior, if they
remain holy and pure in their hearts and repent for their sins they will be forgiven by the
all merciful and all forgiving God and Allah.
The religious texts of Judaism describe women and women’s roles as different but
equal from men and men’s roles. The Torah views women as beings constructed or built,
rather than formed as were men, and assigns corresponding disparities to the subsequent
natures of men and women. “According to traditional Judaism, women are endowed with
a greater degree of "binah" (intuition, understanding, intelligence) than men,” and thus
historical female Jewish religious figures such as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah “were
superior to the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) in prophesy.” Women are also
believed to posses a high degree of tznius, or modesty, and bina yeseira, described by
simpletoremember.com as “greater intuition facilitates a deeper understanding of and
therefore connection with others.” The same website extends this construction of women
to explain why it is generally discouraged for women to become religious scholars,
saying, “A woman learning Gemora, for example, would be training herself to deal with
problems in a linear rather than holistic fashion: this would reduce her insight into her
children and other people, undermine her intuitive grasp of many situations and
compromise her effectiveness to respond to the drama of day to day living both by
anticipating events and by spontaneously adapting to new realities without compromising
deeper principles.” Some traditional sources have implied that women, by their very
nature, exist as more similar to God’s nature than men. Yet although this construction of
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women’s roles is revered and seen as godly, it still constricts possible forms of expression
for women. Each human being is unique, and these generalizations about the insightful
and nurturing nature of women restrict many possibilities for women to express
themselves and construct their own, independent identity.
The Islamic religion views women in a manner similar in many ways to that of
Judaism; women are seen as being fundamentally different from men, and thus hold
different religious roles which nevertheless, if fulfilled faithfully, bring them the same
heavenly rewards and punishments as those accorded to men. Men and women in
general must adhere to the religious guidelines laid out before them by Allah as best they
may, and try to keep themselves pure and holy before God. The Qur’an lays out sinful
and holy behavior, admonishing both men and women equally to follow these religious
rules. Thus Chapter 107 of the Qur’an, Al-Maun, gives a description of “him who belieth
religion,” saying “That is he who repelleth the orphan, and urgeth not the feeding of the
needy. Ah, woe unto worshippers who are heedless of their prayer, who would be seen at
worship yet refuse small kindnesses!” Any person, man or woman, who behaves thus
would be seen as denying their religious duties and as behaving sinfully. Alternately, the
Qur’an promises the same religious rewards to the truly faithful, regardless of gender.
Chapter 33, Al-Ahzab, asserts that,
“Lo! men who surrender unto Allah, and women who
surrender, and men who believe and women who believe,
and men who obey and women who obey, and men who
speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men
who persevere (in righteousness) and women who
persevere, and men who are humble and women who are
humble, and men who give alms and women who give
alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who
guard their modesty and women who guard (their
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modesty), and men who remember Allah much and women
who remember - Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness
and a vast reward.”
The deliberate gender ambiguity of this passage—the careful delineation of men and
women for every virtue—underscores the fundamental equality of men and women to
prove themselves in the religious arena. If they each follow the customs and roles
prescribed to them to the best of their capabilities, they may each expect to gain the
pleasure of Allah and access to the afterlife. Chapter 16, An-Nahl, of the Qur’an asserts
that “Whosoever doeth right, whether male or female, and is a believer, him verily we
shall quicken with good life, and we shall pay them a recompense in proportion to the
best of what they used to do.” No punishment exists based on gender; it is not harder or
easier for women to attain the divine or to please Allah.
Outside of the gender equality of sinning and holy behavior, however, the Qur’an
and the Islamic faith delineate specific roles for men and women, and outline the explicit
natures of each. These roles range from their worship practices and prayers to the type of
clothes appropriate to wear. Men are expected to worship at services in a mosque, and
although women are not expressly forbidden from praying in a mosque, the Prophet
Muhammad is quoted as saying that "The best mosques for women are the inner parts of
their houses." Thus through customs of prayer women are again relegated to the home
and excluded from the male dominated world of religious authority and interpretation. In
terms of dress, Muslim men must cover their body from their belly button to their knee,
while Muslim women are expect to cover every part of her body except for her face and
hands. The Prophet Muhammad explicitly outlined this style of dress, saying, “It is not
lawful for any woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day that she should uncover
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her hand more than this and then he placed his hand on his wrist joint." When a woman
reaches puberty no part of her body should remain uncovered except her face and the
hand up to the wrist joint." The extreme differences in these rules of dress point to the
extreme modesty expected of women, whose position as essentially the possession of the
men in their lives necessitates that they cover themselves from the violating gaze of other
men. By assigning such differing roles to men and women, women are kept under the
shadow of men and in the home under the name of fulfilling their religious duties.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam each delegate women in a large degree to the role
of the nurturer, the calming influence whose main purpose on earth is to procreate, raise
her children, and serve her husband. A woman is valued for her potential as a wife and
mother, and her ability to care for and raise the men around her. The qualities then,
which such a role would necessitate are the qualities extolled in women in the religious
texts of the Islam, Christianity and Judaism. They call for women to be docile,
submissive, gentle, nurturing, wise, and patient. The letters of Peter in the Bible describe
at one point the appropriate demeanor for wives, saying, “wives, in the same way be
submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be
won over without talk by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and
reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as
braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of
your inner self; the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in
God's sight. For this is the way the holy women, of the past who put their hope in God
used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their husbands, like Sarah,
who obeyed Abraham and called him her master...” (I Peter 3:1) Although this passage
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does not place this gender role as less worthy to the male gender role, by nature such a
submissive character would have unequal dealings with a more powerful nature. The
image of the weaker sex continues in Peter’s letters; later, he admonishes husbands to “in
the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as
the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life…” (I Peter 3:7) This
image of men as more powerful and stronger than women leads to a view of women as
dependent on men and incapable of fulfilling their religious roles without the aid of men.
The narrow constructs of women’s role also limits the free expression of many women,
who did not or did not want to solely marry and bear children, but sought other
professions and purposes in life.
Historical analysis of the times in which these texts were written and in which
these three religions came into being must be made to understand the status of women in
society. Women were awarded a status greatly inferior to that of men and often held a
position in society barely above that of slaves. They did not have access to education,
and it would have been highly inappropriate for women to hold positions of authority in
the church. Women were not allowed to study the Torah or hold positions of religious
power, such as rabbis. When Christianity began to grow, although Jesus’ practices were
allegedly much more egalitarian as regarding women, in order to placate critics of the
emerging religion much care was taken for the policies of the religion regarding women
not to seem too heretical. Kaari Ward, in his book Jesus and His Times asserts that “the
apostle Paul and other church leaders were very concerned about avoiding any
appearance of scandal that would make a bad impression on the people they wanted to
convert to Christianity, or worse, that could be used to justify persecution of Christians.”
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Thus the influence of women was much downplayed to lessen the potential outcry from
critics. Karen King asserts that “every variety of ancient Christianity that advocated the
legitimacy of women's leadership was eventually declared heretical, and evidence of
women's early leadership roles was erased or suppressed.” For example, “in Romans
16:7, the apostle Paul sends greetings to a woman named Junia. He says of her and her
male partner Andronicus that they are "my kin and my fellow prisoners, prominent
among the apostles and they were in Christ before me." Concluding that women could
not be apostles, textual editors and translators transformed Junia into Junias, a man.”
Both to combat labels of heresy and to reflect the male-oriented attitude of the times,
women’s early influence and impact of Christianity was greatly watered down and
lessened by male religious figures.
In the early years of Christianity a much stronger female religious presence
existed than is acknowledged today. Bible scholar Karen King, in her essay “Women in
Ancient Christianity: the New Discoveries,” cites several female influences and
important female religious figures in the ministry of Christ: “From the beginning, Jewish
women disciples, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, had accompanied
Jesus during his ministry and supported him out of their private means.” The apostle
Paul’s letters also cite many Jewish and Gentile women who were instrumental in the
spread of early Christiantiy. “He greets Prisca, Junia, Julia, and Nereus' sister, who
worked and traveled as missionaries in pairs with their husbands or brothers (Romans
16:3, 7, 15). He tells us that Prisca and her husband risked their lives to save his. He
praises Junia as a prominent apostle, who had been imprisoned for her labor. Mary and
Persis are commended for their hard work (Romans 16:6, 12). Euodia and Syntyche are
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called his fellow-workers in the gospel (Philippians 4:2-3).” Furthermore, the lack of
churches in which to hold religious services led to most services being held in private
homes, where women possessed much influence. In these home services, women often
led prayer and acted as religious leaders and prophets. Women, both single and in
conjunction with the work of their husbands, worked towards the spread and growth of
the Christian faith.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, discovered in 1896, provided important evidence
regarding the role of women in early Christianity. In this text, Mary Magdalene appears
as an important apostle close to Jesus, rather than as a repentant whore such as she was
portrayed by Christians for a very long time.
When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was to this
point that the Savior had spoken with her. But Andrew
answered and said to the brethren, "Say what you (wish to)
say about what she has said. I at least do not believe that
the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are
strange ideas." Peter answered and spoke concerning these
same things. He questioned them about the Savior: "Did he
really speak privately with a woman (and) not openly to us?
Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her
to us?" Then Mary wept and said to Peter, "My brother
Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I thought this
up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?"
Levi answered and said to Peter, "Peter, you have always
been hot-tempered. Now I see you contending against the
woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her
worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior
knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than
us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect man,
and separate as he commanded us and preach the gospel,
not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what
the Savior said." When [...]and they began to go forth [to]
proclaim and to preach.”
The open dialogue between the characters in this passage exemplifies the level of
ambiguity in religious interpretation as well as the gender prejudices inherent the society
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of the time (prejudices which continue in many degrees today). Andrew and Peter each
question the veracity of Mary’s words, denying the possibility that Jesus would have
chosen to transmit his teachings to a woman, privately, rather than openly to his male
disciples. Although in this gospel their protests are silenced by Levi, it is extremely
possible that at later times other protests against women apostles and female religious
figures were successful in eradicating the feminine presence from early Christian religion
and religious writings. In their attempted denial of the veracity of Mary’s contribution,
Andrew and Peter exhibit the male-oriented societal mores of the time, which would lead
them to openly denounce the possibility of Jesus preferring a woman over men to
transmit his preaching.
In the years after the birth of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, the societies of the
world perpetuated the gender stereotypes and power relations laid out in the Bible, the
Qur’an, the Torah and Talmud. Art, literature, political laws, and other forms of
expression upheld the ideas of women as submissive, meek, and occupying roles separate
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from those accorded to men.
In his painting “The Last Supper,” famous Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci depicts
Jesus at the last supper surrounded by his apostles. It was common for Renaissance
artists to use religious themes in their work, but the resulting paintings either depicted
men in positions of religious power, as saints, prophets, or apostles, or women in
positions of subservience to men and specifically to Jesus. Paintings and sculptures of
the Virgin Mary, also extremely common, show a supposedly exemplary woman in the
eyes of the Lord: caring for her son, Jesus, so that he may spread the word of God while
she remains in the background, her only religious influence gained through her position
as his mother.
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In this painting by Renaissance artist Rafael, the Virgin Mary is the central focus of the
piece, but this focus comes only from her position as the mother of the baby Jesus, who
she carries in her arms. The other woman in the painting is dressed in non-religious garb
and meekly directs her gaze away from Jesus and Mary, towards the child angels sitting
pensively at the bottom of the painting. The male figure is dressed in priestly attire,
bowing slightly as he gazes at the baby Jesus. Even within this painting the gender
stereotypes of the time and the religious roles accorded to women are revealed. More
recent art with religious themes, such as Chagall’s famous twelve stained glass windows
in the Synagogue of the Hadassah university hospital, Ein Kerem depicting Jacob's
blessings to his sons, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, also excludes the female influence in
religion.
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Reuben
Asher
Benjamin
Dan
Gad
Judah
Joseph
Zebulon
Simeon
Levi
Naphtali
Issachar
Although Islam, Christianity and Judaism each came into being thousands of
years ago, the constituents of each still base their religious faith today on the Qur’an, the
Bible, the Torah and the Talmud. The gender prejudices and stereotypes contained
within these texts still exist as the doctrines which believers learn and seek to uphold in
their quest follow the teaching of God and Allah and lead moral, religious lives on earth
so that the may gain entrance into the afterlife. Yet significant changes have occurred
over the last few thousand years regarding women’s rights. In many countries around the
world, women may vote, women have access to education, equal property rights as men,
the right to divorce, custody rights of children, and the social freedom to live their entire
lives, if they so desire, without marrying or having children. Although legal and social
equality for women appears more universally in Western countries, it is not solely
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confined to this area. In Iran, women hold senior positions in government and are given
the right to vote; in the most recent local elections over 5,000 women ran for public
office. More women than men attend Iranian universities, and there are more women in
Iran’s parliament than in the United States Senate. Current Iranian president Mohammad
Khatami appointed three women to senior government posts, and in December 2004 four
women judges were ordained. (Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: the Hidden
World of Islamic Women) Although men still hold a much higher percentage of positions
of power, religious and otherwise, around the world, women are slowly becoming
integrated into this hierarchy. The increased influence and power of women also extends
into the arena of religion.
Islamic, Christian, and Jewish women are reclaiming religious power, as well.
Women are actively asserting religious influence and power in their respective churches,
temples, mosques, and overall religious communities. On Friday, March 18, 2005 in
New York City, Dr. Amina Wadud, professor of Islamic studies at Virginia
Commonwealth University, was the first woman to lead a public, mixed-gender Friday
prayer and deliver the Friday sermon. (The Muslim Women’s League) On March 7,
2005, the board of Congregation Beth El in South Orange, New Jersey voted to appoint
Rabbi Francine Roston, 36, as the synagogue's spiritual leader. Roston’s appointment as
the senior rabbi will be a first in a Conservative synagogue with over 500 families in its
shul. Today nearly eleven percent of the 1,600 members of the Rabbinical Assembly are
women. Many Christian sects ordain female ministers, although the Catholic religion, a
highly popular religion throughout the world, still has yet to approve the ordination of
female ministers. Yet as more and more women enter the religious hierarchy of these
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three religions, slowly the age old customs preventing women from achieving positions
of influence and power are being eradicated. Women’s struggle for equality has endured
for many, many years, and the area of religion has proved particularly resistant to
advancements in this area. The high saturation of religion in the world today, and the fact
that an extremely high majority of the world follows a religion, has enabled male
religious leaders to perpetuate the gender stereotypes of religion and extend them to other
aspect of society. The chart below documents the religious affiliation of the world
population, and demonstrates the overwhelming presence of religion in the world today:
In order for women to fight against the institutional prejudices aimed at them, they must
work in conjunction with these religions institutions to fight the stereotype of women as
submissive, different but ‘equal’ counterparts to men.
Although Islam, Christianity, and Judaism profess to treat women and men
equally, the truth is that each of their religious doctrines is restrictive to women. They
seek to delegate women to the home, to make them wholly submissive to and dependant
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on their husbands, and to describe women as weaker beings that need male protection to
survive in the world and to appropriately understand religion. With religious education
and positions of religious power denied to women, they are effectively trapped within the
constrictive confines of these narrow roles. If solely men are allowed to interpret
religious texts and the relationships between God and Allah and mankind, women will
never fully reclaim religious independence. The increase of female religious scholars in
recent years has led to the discovery of female influence in the formative years of these
religions and the male oppression which effectively eradicated these influences for so
many years, or at the very least lessened the import of female religious influence by
solely recognizing women as domestic property of men. The obsession with female
purity also does an injustice to women by forcing them to tie themselves to one man if
they hope to gain legitimacy in their religious communities. While men may have sexual
affairs or even take more than one wife, women are expected to keep themselves pure for
their eventual husbands, so that the future property of these men is not ‘tainted’ by others.
Women become defined not for their independent and individual worth, but for their
connection and relationship with others; namely, with the men in their lives. Since the
beginning of these three organized religions, the prejudices of men have overshadowed
and limited the nature of women, and it is only through a prolonged and concentrated
effort by women in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and all other religions that the gender
imbalance and restrictions built into the religious texts and early history of these religions
may be gradually erased.