Sexism In Theravada Buddhism

“…The socially constructed limitations and sufferings of women led to the belief that women were inherently spiritually inferior to men “(Appleton, 2011) Women being lesser in Buddhism is a theme across almost all schools of Buddhism. In my studies I have come to the same conclusion that most others have, that women are definitely seen as lesser in Buddhist institutions but that the spirit of Buddhism is not sexist. Throughout many different countries and different schools of Buddhism women are seen in some form or another as lesser or there to serve. They are seen as a lesser even in the teachings of certain schools unable to do many things just for the fact that they are women. For some it may seem strange but to others it is just culture …show more content…
In Theravada Buddhism women cannot become a bodhisattva, once the initial idea of becoming a Buddha has occurred rebirth as a woman becomes impossible. Theravada Buddhism says that women can only become an arahat, which requires a teacher, so that is the main goal for women followers of Theravada Buddhism. Even the Buddha himself had said that women cannot become a fully awakened Buddha. Women must first achieve rebirth as a man in order to start on the path to become bodhisattva. When looking at the jataka stories (the stories of the Buddha’s previous incarnations) all of the stories are about males whether it is a human, animal, naga, or some other being in the Buddha’s previous lives he was never a woman. “As Rita Gross has said of this situation: ‘To see more affinity between male humans and male animals than between female and male human beings must be an extreme of androcentric consciousness in which … women are seen as outside the norm, as a foreign object but not a human subject.’” (Appleton, 2011) It is possible that the jatakas only have the Buddha’s previous lives represented as a man because it was easier for the Buddha to imagine himself as a man in his previous lives since in his current one he was a man. The concept of women being inferior to men is supported by constraints women have places on them like childbirth and even social ones like being at the will of their husband and his family. Many women believe that they are born women because of bad karma from previous lives. If a man were to do many “bad” actions in his life he would go through many incarnations in the hell realms and of animals before finally being reborn just as a woman and it would take many incarnations as a woman in order to be reborn a man. This further propagates the belief of women being a lower form to that of men. Appleton summarizes this ideas perfectly into