Using material from item A and elsewhere,, assess the relationship between gender and religion 33marks
Although there is only one God in most contemporary religions, Hinduism being an exception, men and women tend to view that God differently. Davie showed that women see God more as a God love, comfort and forgiveness whereas men tend to see more as a God of power and control. It could be argued that these traits that men and women tend to associate with God are similar to typical masculine and feminine values e.g. Power and control is stereotypically a male trait.

In the majority of religions, males are given the more significant roles. An example of this is Christianity which is seen as inherently patriarchal with men made in ‘the image and glory of God’ and women made ‘for the glory of man. This is supported by the Old Testament which states ‘...for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.’ There are many female characters in the biblical texts and some are portrayed as acting charitably or bravely, however the primary roles are reserved for males. All the most significant Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah and Moses are male, while in the New Testament all the apostles are men. The most prominent females in the Bible, Eve and Mary mother of Jesus can be interpreted as reinforcing patriarchal idea regarding, on one hand, the dangers of female sexuality and on the other, the virtues of motherhood. Similarly in the Quran, the sacred text of Islam contends that ‘men are in charge of women’. Even Christianity and Buddhism are dominated by a patriarchal power structure in which the feminine is mainly associated with the secular, powerless, profane and imperfect. Even women’s bodies and sexuality are felt to be dangerous by many religious. Because women menstruate and give birth, they are considered to have the capacity to ‘pollute’ religious rituals. The presence of women is seen to distract men from their important roles involving worship. Turner suggests that disciplinary roles with respect to sexuality in central to religion. Widespread importance is given to ascetic as self-disciplined existence in which pleasure (especially physical) is repressed. This means that in order to carry out priestly duties properly, there needs to be a degree of policing of the body and the presence of women makes this more difficult.

These patriarchal attitudes have meant that until recently women have been barred from serving as priests in many of the world’s great religions, and the more traditional factions continue to bar them. The Catholic Church, Islamic groups, ad orthodox Jew continues to exclude women from the religious hierarchy. Although women ministers have long been accepted in some sects and dominations, the Church of England persisted in formally supporting inequalities of gender until 1992, when its general Synod finally voted to allow the ordination of women. Simona and Nadell conducted research about women in religious organisations, drawing on evidence from in-depth interviews with 32 female’s rabbis and 27 female members of the protestant clergy. They concluded that the women conduct themselves in totally different ways to their male counterparts. They asked the female rabbis whether they carried out their duties different from male rabbis of the same age and training. Almost all the women replied ‘yes’. They described themselves as less formal, more approachable, more egalitarian and more inclined to touch and hug. This study however is gender bias because it only accounts for the female view, men may disagree with their answers. Interviews also suffer from social desirability bias, the tendency to respond in a way that will be viewed favourably to others and this takes the form of over reporting desirable behaviour and under reporting undesirable behaviour.

Even though there is evidence to suggest that religious institutions have patriarchal values, it should not be assumed that all religions are equally oppressive to women. Gender-neutral language has been introduced in many hymns and prayers and the requirement in the Christian marriage ceremony for the bride to promise to obey her husband is now also optional. Judaism has allowed women to become rabbis in its non-orthodox demonisations since 1972, and even some Christian religions particularly Quakerism have never been oppressive to women. Some sociologist highlights how there are signs of hope developing with religious organisations. Gross detects signs of a post-patriarchal Buddhism developing in the West, which does not differentiate roles for male and female members. Paganism, from which many New Age religions emanate, remains the most female-friendly approach to religion with a strong feminist element tin contemporary neo-paganism, where God is a mixture of male and female, and strong female leadership is common. Badawi has noted that aspects of Islam are positive for women such as having the option to keep their own family name when they marry.

As item A states, ‘despite feminist criticisms of the prescriptive roles ascribed to women by many religions, significant numbers of women continue to be attracted to such religions’. Whatever women’s influence and status may have been in religious institutions, and despite recent drift away from mainstream Christianity, studies have consistently shown that women are more religious than men. Hoffmann reported that women are more likely to express a greater interest in religion, attend church more often and have a stronger personal religious commitment. Until recently these patterns appeared to hold true through religious organisation. However during the last 20years, women have begun to leave the church faster than men. According to Brierley, between 1989 and 1998, more than 65000 women were lost from churches each years, 57% of those were women. Aune et al suggest a number of reasons for the decline of church attendance by women. One being is feminist values. These values began influencing women in the 1960s and 1970s, challenging traditional Christian views about women’s role and raising aspirations. Another is paid employment. During the 20th century, one-third of women were in employment, now this has role to two-thirds. Juggling employment with childcare and household cause’s time pressures and attending church is one activity that suffers as a consequence of this. Family diversity is another reason. Compared to the wider society churches include fewer non-traditional families. Family forms which are growing such as singleness, lone-parent families and cohabitation, are underprovided for and even discouraged by the church. Lastly is sexuality in which the church’s ambivalence towards sexuality is driving women to leave feeling that the church requires them to deny or be silent about their sexual desire and activity.

Even though securlisation of women from the church as increase, women are more and more participating in sects than men. Bruce suggests that the ratio of female-to male is about 2:1.Thomspon suggests that sects members have the ‘promise of salvation and the knowledge that they are enlightened.’ Glock and Stark identify a number of different types of deprivation in addition to the economic, all of which are more likely to apply to women. They suggested that people who form or join sects may have experienced on or even a number of these.