Introduction
In
the last two decades, gender problems have become interesting issues of
discussion, both in the global and national scope. Various problems faced by
women and men are analyzed through various approaches in order to find the root
of the problems. The problems rooted in religions are the most important things
since human lives generally are strongly influenced by religions and cultures.
These two factors influence each other that there are times when it cannot be
differed which one influences what or which has more dominant influence.
Therefore, in order to see the root of the problems, textual study of a
religion about men and women position and its reality in the society is needed.
Human
lives have been through a phase when they are the object, are inherited and
traded. Human souls are even determined by their family or society. Violence in
the name of religion is also experienced by women in a long period of time in
the history of human being without any shame or regret from the actors.
Nowadays, violence and persecution is still taking place in a more
sophisticated form. This paper tries to analyse how the problems between men
and women, which include status, rights, position and roles, relate to religion
view. This paper also explains how far culture has given a strong colour in
religion interpretation and how the result will be if the textual study is done
in the approach of gender equality that lifting up women’s degree of humanity.
Gender
When discussing gender as a social construct,
‘gender roles’ are the significant subject of discourse. Gender roles relate to
societal norms and expectations which determine behaviours a given society or
culture prescribes for a particular gender. The most common dichotomy in this
regard describes a masculine/feminine binary. To offer an archaic yet not
entirely extinct example from a western context, it is masculine to be the
primary bread-winner and feminine to play a primary role in the private/domestic
sphere.Generally speaking, in traditional cultures where patriarchal religion
continues to play a primary role in determining the politics, ethics and values
of a society, gender roles tend to be more rigidly defined and controlled by
men, than are gender roles in more secular societies.. The concept of
gender also includes the expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes
and likely behaviours of both women and men (femininity and masculinity).
Gender roles and expectations are learned. They can change over time and they
vary with in and between cultures. Systems of social differentiation such as
political status, class, ethnicity, physical and mental disability, age and
more,, modify gender roles.. The concept of gender is vita l because, applied to
social analysis, it reveals how wo men’s subordination (or men’s domination))
is socially constructed. As such, the subordination can be changed or ended. It
is not biologically predetermined nor is it fixed forever. Sex describes
the biological differences be tween men and women, which are universal and
determined at birth.
Gender
Analysis is the
collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated information. Men and women both
perform different roles. This leads to women and men having different experience,
knowledge, talents and needs. Gender analysis explores these differences so
policies, programmes and projects can identify and meet the different needs of
men and women. Gender analysis also facilitates the strategic use of distinct
knowledge and skills possessed by women and men.
Gender
Equality means
that women and men have equal conditions for realizing their full human rights
and for contributing to, and benefiting from, economic, social, cultural and
political development. Gender equality is therefore the equal valuing by
society of the similarities and the differences of men and women, and the roles
they play. It is based on women and men being full partners in their home,
their community and their society.
Gender
Equity is the
process of being fair to men and women. To ensure fairness, measures must often
be put in place to compensate for the historical and social disadvantages that
prevent women and men from operating on a level playing field. Equity is a
means. Equality is the result.
Discrimination
based on gender (or sex) is a common civil rights violation that takes many
forms, including sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and unequal pay
for women who do the same jobs as men. Unfortunately, most U.S. women are all
too familiar with all of these inequalities. This section offers in-depth
information on unlawful gender and sex discrimination in a number of settings
-- including employment and education -- and provides links to key federal laws
and U.S. Supreme Court decisions related to gender and sex discrimination.
Gender discrimination laws also protect the rights of transgender individuals.
Read the articles below to learn how to identify and protect you against gender
based discrimination.
Domination of Culture
Human
civilization develops in patriarchal culture and ideology. In western
countries, US and west Europe, this culture has been wiped out by the
development of technology-democracy, etc., that places equality and justice as
their central values. In the Third World countries, including Indonesia,
patriarchal culture and ideology are very strong and are present in all aspects
of life and society structure that it results in gender disparity. DE
secularization in nurturing children will create various internal and external
conflicts if it is not followed by grounded projection and insight about the
meaning of the roles of social changes applied in the environment. The conflict
emerges if the result of the ongoing socialization process in the family can
not be From Gender Differences and Injustice to Gender Equality and
Justice(Gender in Christian Perspective) 357 applied in the wider social
environment because of the very different value system. Literally, patriarchal
means the power of a father that at the beginning develops in a family under
the father protection, as what can be found in extended family or groups in
society where men are the leaders. Men have central position where the whole
lives and activities of the groups are determined by the male leader. Men are
seen as the appropriate person to lead. Based on that condition, the
discharging of women’s rights in various complex societies begins to take
place. Aware or not, this stream of culture will be stronger and at the end it
will be its culture and ideology. Next, in a long process, through the culture,
subordination toward women unites in the society. In traditional society,
patriarchal is seen as a thing that is not to be disputed because it is always
linked with the nature of the undeniable supernatural power. According to them,
God has determined the differences between men and women that human lives are
governed by the differences. It means that because women and men are different
biologically, their social functions and jobs are designed differently. Men are
always related to function and task outside the house, whereas women, with
their nature to give birth, need to stay in the house. The main duty of women
is to raise children and the main duty of men is to find a living. The
differences are seen as natural things. Therefore the disparity that leads to
subordination toward women is seen as a natural thing as well. It does not only
happen in a family but it has developed in the life of society.
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social structural phenomenon
in which males have the privilege of dominance over females, both visibly and
subliminally. This phenomenon is manifested in the values, attitudes, customs,
expectations, and institutions of the society, and it is maintained through the
process of socialization. Some societies are more patriarchal than others, but
virtually all are characterized by the phenomenon in one form or another.
Patriarchy is a function of male physical, social, economic, and political
power. Females and children, along with any individuals with a non traditional
gender identity, suffer from subordination to men The term patriarchy comes
from the Latin pater (father) and arch (rule).
Historically, “rule of the father” was the more appropriate
definition of patriarchy. Valentine Moghadam has written that under classic
patriarchy, “the senior man has authority over everyone else in the
family, including younger men, and women are subject to distinct forms of
control and subordination” (2004, p. 141). Furthermore, property,
residence, and descent all proceed exclusively through the male line. Today,
however, this definition may be considered an overly simplistic description
because the phenomenon has evolved substantially over time.
As already mentioned, to varying degrees,
patriarchy is nearly universally prevalent. Although, as Gerda Lerner (1986)
has noted, anthropologists have found societies in which sexual differences are
not associated with practices of dominance or subordination, patriarchy does
exist in the majority of societies. Often, patriarchy is
associated more strongly with nations characterized by religious
fundamentalism. Yet male domination and female subordination are salient
features of social structure in virtually all societies, regardless of the
race, ethnicity, class, or religion of the members. Most patriarchal societies
have adopted characteristics associated with male domination, namely,
aggression and power, as well as the consequences of these characteristics,
namely, war and destruction.Because the subordination of women to men is a
feature in the majority of all societies, patriarchy is often argued to be due
to biology, such as women’s principal role in childbearing. However, many
scholars today hold that patriarchy is a social construction.
Modern patriarchy is structural, meaning that
it underlies the foundations of all of society’s institutions. In most
societies, any accomplishments in the direction of gender equality must be made
within a larger patriarchal structure. This is one reason why women are at such
a constant disadvantage socially, politically, and economically.
Both religion and patriarchy have prehistoric
roots. What was the relationship between these two ancient human practices? As
food for thought, consider the following hypothesis.
Prehistorically, women probably had more
power and higher status living in hunting and gathering tribes than within
ancient city-states. The introduction of agriculture fostered various
developments that probably led to the oppression of women.
Higher populations were living in permanent
communities with greater resources, and this required many new rules to manage
a complex society. Further, the concepts of private property and inheritance
originated when a community produced more than it needed for its own survival,
a phenomenon that accompanied the invention of agriculture. This brought about
a fundamental change in the use of resources—instead of the communal sharing
typical of hunter/ gatherer tribes, individuals competed for resources, with
land ownership becoming the primary mark of wealth and power. Also, men began
investing long-term, substantial resources in the specific children borne by
their wives, not in all children of the tribe.
The key to the origin of patriarchy probably
lies in the biological need for people to invest in their own children.
Evolutionarily speaking, individuals are compelled to spread their genes by
reproducing. Animals do not generally take care of young that are not their
own, since this would turn them into evolutionary dead-ends. In the case of
humans, women always know that the children they bear are related to them, but
men can never know for sure who their genetic offspring are, which can cause
huge anxiety for them. This male dilemma matters little to women, since women’s
biological priority is to find someone to help provide for their children, and
it doesn’t have to be the father. In fact, female duplicity in this regard has
always been common—overall, nine percent of children are raised by men who only
think they are the fathers (Boster, 1997).
In ancient human societies, the obvious and
most practical way to ensure that men invested in their own children was to
dictate and restrict women’s sexual behaviour. For example, adultery became a
far worse crime for women than for men. Of course, this control of women was
never consciously justified on biological grounds—but it had to be justified
somehow. The most convenient and effective social explanation was this: Women’s
subjugation had to be enforced because women were inferior to men and their
sexuality was a source of evil temptation that corrupted men.
How could such beliefs be justified and
enforced? In a word, religion. Women’s confinement to the role of faithful wife
and mother was God-ordained by default, because religion permeated early
societies—it dictated everything about people’s lives. Divine laws and
religious mythmaking fulfilled patriarchal needs by providing moral
justification, strength, and endurance to beliefs about woman’s proper place.
These beliefs became enshrined in the sacred books of organized religion, such
as the Judaic Old Testament.
Gender
inequality in religions
The role of religion in strengthening
patriarchy in society is all too obvious. To state that religion is the most
potent force and the most important nurturing factor behind patriarchy would
not be an exaggeration. Columnist Katha Pollitt has suggested in ‘Free
Inquiry‘, a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism,
that religion is the ‘original‘ rule book of patriarchy. Indeed, if
patriarchy is the social normal, it is largely because it derives its
legitimacy from religion, the most important rule book pertaining to societal
do’s-and-don’ts in any community.
Almost all organised religions propagate the
idea of male superiority. They paint women as physically, mentally, emotionally
and sexually inferior to men. The latter get special rights and privileges on
account of being ‘naturally’ superior to their female counterparts. For
example, in Islam, the right to instantaneous and unilateral
divorce is enjoyed only by men. The logic behind denying women the same right,
as furnished by some classical jurists, is that ‘the female nature is
wanting in rationality and self-control‘. This tendency of ‘patronising’
and ‘guiding’ is not restricted to Islam. Almost all religion and their
holy texts advocate domination of females by males and advertise the same as
something that is actually beneficial for the former.
According to Genesis 3:16, God told Eve that
‘…the husband will rule over you‘. This was after Adam and Eve consumed
the forbidden fruit; a folly for which Eve was categorically held responsible.
This is largely taken to mean that God entrusted men with the task to ensure
that women do not make such foolish mistakes again. In other words, God charged
men with the duty to ‘guide’ and ‘protect’ their wives. Ephesians
5:23 clearly states that husband is the head of the wife.
In almost all organised religions,
restrictions exist over a woman’s choices over her body, sexuality, lifestyle,
clothes, and just about everything. Sexuality and reproductive rights is especially
the problem-area with regard to women. Almost all religions advocate ‘sexual
exclusivity’ for women while exonerating men from the same obligation.
Hijab, Niqab, veils, sindoor and mangalsutra are
all religiously-endorsed tools for showcasing and implying ‘sexual
exclusivity’ of women.
Whatever reasons may be cited for the use of
these ‘markers’ of sexual exclusivity and whatever arguments given in
support of the same, it is but very obvious that the end-motive of the use of
these markers is to rein-in and ‘protect’ the sexuality of women. Why,
otherwise, in an institution having two people as partners, would only one
partner be expected to ‘showcase’ their marital status and, hence,
sexual exclusivity. The use of hijab, niqab and other forms of
veils to ‘protect’ women from the male gaze and possible sexual ‘misadventures’
is well-documented and much debated. Most religious texts openly discriminate
between males and females when it comes to expression of sexuality and sexual
desires.
What is alarming is how deeply this
religiously-endorsed patriarchy is seeped into the common psyche and behaviour.
Incidentally, the Supreme God in all religions is always envisioned as a male.
Scriptures are mostly written and interpreted by men who tweak and translate
them to suit their own vision of the desirable social-order and preferable
gender-dynamics in the same. Religious organisations, spiritual and temporal,
are dominated by men and are largely off-limits for women though it is commonly
acknowledged that the latter tend to be more religiously and morally inclined
and possess the qualities needed for the discharge of duties that these
organisations entail.
Orthodox Catholicism forbids women from becoming priests
simply because a priest essentially plays the part of Christ and the latter
happens to be a male. Also, as per Christian traditions, since Jesus selected
only male apostles and did not ordain women, the inclusion of women is not
considered desirable. Hence the exclusion of women from priesthood continues.
In Islam, women cannot lead prayers as ‘imams’ in mosques and in
mixed gatherings. Women can lead prayers in women-only gatherings as is the
general pattern in South Asia, thereby, conforming to the policy of segregation
as advocated by the Holy Scriptures.
Women priests in Hindu temples are extremely
rare because women are ‘biologically’ unfit for the job as menstruating
women are deemed impure and unfit for ‘sacred’ duties pertaining to God.
This is also the reason why women are denied entry to places of worship when
they are menstruating. The fear of divine reprisal prevents women from
demanding equal rights in religious affairs and a more egalitarian
social-order. They simply accept this discrimination as ‘natural’ and ‘god-ordained’.
The concept of role of genders in society is
very much impacted by such religious underpinnings. Hence women are reduced to
socially, economically and spiritually inferior beings whose primary role is
procreation. Their natural realm is the home and their duty is that of a
home-maker. Such blatant discrimination can only be normalised and ingrained in
the common psyche by evoking the name of God.
Ministry
Ministry" is from the Greek word diakoneo, meaning "to
serve" or douleuo, meaning "to serve as a slave." In the New
Testament, ministry is seen as service to God and to other people in His name.
Jesus provided the pattern for Christian ministry—He came, not to receive service,
but to give it (see Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 13:1-17).
The Christian should minister by meeting people's needs with love and humility on Christ's behalf (see Matthew 20:26; Mark 10:43; John 2:5,9; Acts 6:3; Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:10; Colossians 4:12). Christians are to minister to others out of their devotion to Christ and their love for others, whether the other people are believers or unbelievers. Ministry to others should be impartial and unconditional, always seeking to help others as Jesus would.
The Christian should minister by meeting people's needs with love and humility on Christ's behalf (see Matthew 20:26; Mark 10:43; John 2:5,9; Acts 6:3; Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:10; Colossians 4:12). Christians are to minister to others out of their devotion to Christ and their love for others, whether the other people are believers or unbelievers. Ministry to others should be impartial and unconditional, always seeking to help others as Jesus would.
Jesus
ministry
Jesus treated
women well—despite the male-dominated culture in which he lived. He treated
them respectfully, was sensitive to their needs, used them as good examples of
faith, and included them in his ministry in several important ways.
Women are prominent in the story of Jesus—he was born of a woman, had
numerous interactions with women, and was seen first by women after his
resurrection.
"Women
were employed by Jesus quite freely as illustrations in His teaching,"
Borland notes.[7] "This is in stark contrast to the rabbis of the
day. One looks in vain in their teachings for even one story or sermon
illustration that mentions women," Linda Belleville adds.[8] In many
of Jesus' illustrations, women are presented as positive
role models of faith, which men should follow. For example:
·
The woman mixing yeast into
dough (Matt.
13:33), who is presented as an illustration of the
way that the kingdom of God works[9]
·
The woman who found the
coin she had lost (Luke
15:8-10). In this parable the woman plays the role
of God, just as the shepherd did in the preceding parable and the father does
in the following parable.[10]
In Luke 11, an
anonymous woman called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and
nursed you" (v. 27). Jesus did not deny that his own mother was blessed,
but he said that the real blessing is given to "those who hear the word of
God and obey it" (v. 28). A woman's spiritual worth is based on her
response to God, not in performing biological functions. Women are saved by
faith, not by bearing children.
Jesus attitude towards women was
redeeming.
-
Jesus called them daughters of Abraham luck 13: 16
-
Take heart, daughter your faith
has healed you. Mt 12:44
-
Jesus asked the Samaritan woman , will you give me a drink ?
-
She has done a beautiful thing to me – he tells to the women who
anointed his feet,” I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached
throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her”.
Re
understanding of ministry in context of gender injustices
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For
you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians
3:28
Men
and women are of equal value before God. The Bible is unmistakably clear in
making this assertion. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is no male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”
(Gal. 3:28 ESV). Thus we must passionately guard against any hint of chauvinism
that says that women are inferior to men, less valuable, or unworthy of
respect. Likewise we must combat with equal fervour the prevailing
characterization of men as weak, unable to lead, and dependent upon women for
guidance and direction. Though created perfectly by God and then distorted by
the Fall, the Church’s effort is to restore the roles of men and women to their
original design. As image bearers of our Creator, women and men have equal
status before God: “So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27 ESV). Similarly, God
has bestowed upon both men and women spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:7), unique
talents, and has given each the responsibility for doing the work of the
ministry.
the intention of this paper to make us realise that gender analysis is
not a threat to the church, but a tool that can enable us to root out those
aspects in our faith traditions that perpetuate the oppression, exclusion and
marginalisation of women. Perhaps some of us feel that things should be left
alone, but the rising incidents of violence against women is a clear sign that all
is not well, that gender inequality is not a harmless practice that will
disappear! Gender inequality needs to be seen for what it really is a crime
against humanity and a seat for the struggle for justice. That struggle needs
to happen within the church. Women’s rights are human rights.
1.
Men and women are of equal value before God; men are not better than women, nor
are women more important than men.
2.
Men and women, though being equal, are different by divine design. Men and
women are given distinctive, complementary roles by God within the family and
the church.
3. Men (husbands) and women (wives) share
common responsibilities and yet are uniquely created by God to utilize their
characteristics as men and women to also fulfill their unique and complimentary
roles within marriage.
4. Men and women may serve in other leadership
roles in the church, including the office of deacon and should study theology,
teach, lead, administrate, oversee specific ministries, serve as deacons, and
use their varied gifts and talents for the benefit of the believing community.
5. The role of ‘teaching authority’, or elder, however, is reserved for
qualified men—men that God calls and equips to serve and lead the church.
6.
Men and women of Cornerstone are called to joyfully submit to the governing
group of elders that God has placed over them in the church.
7.
The issue of gender roles ought not to be a cause for division or separation,
but should represent differences that we celebrate, as gifts from God.
Conclusion
As
we endeavour to recover the lost image of women, let us look at the scriptures
form the perspective of women and expose some of the patriarchal biases, its is
also important to fight hardened cultural beliefs and religion practices which
have not given woman their due place and respect. It should be noted that
historical reconstruction of Jesus movement and the early church from the women
perspective, first of all Jesus was not a Christian he was a Jew. Jesus stood
very much in Jewish, pharisaic, rabbinical tradition of his day, but in matter
of attitude towards women, Jesus was very radical and different. He took an
egalitarian feminist position and that is why Jesus movement was renaissance
and renewal movement within Judaism in conflict with patriarchal system
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