Patriarchy In Religion

Throughout history the role of women has been the same across many religions. Outside of people of color, women are the second most oppressed and marginalized group of people. Because many of these religions are believed to be rooted in patriarchal norms, they have really strict views on what the role of women should be. It is through the use of religion that allows the male dominated society to create and place women in these gender specific roles. However, history has shown some efforts from women of all ethnicities fight to obtain equality in their religions and in society period. It was not until the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century when the feminist movement gained quite a bit of traction, women’s push for equality led …show more content…
As defined by Invitation To World Religions, “Modernization is the general process through which societies transform economically, socially, and culturally to keep pace with an increasingly competitive global marketplace… It’s net effects include… the increased roles of women in various aspects of society” (21). This quote highlights one of most significant causes of the evolution of women in religion. Modernization allowed the feminist movement to prosper and bring attention the patriarchy that ruled over religion, thus exposing the all the work that women put in which impacted the success of many religions and religious leaders. This exposure to women contributions, which was never acknowledged for the most part, persuaded several religions to offer women higher positions of power and increased the number of roles that women could have in …show more content…
“As in other religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism, patriarchal cultural norms are sometimes justified in terms of religion. When we consider the historical context in which it was revealed, the Qur’an introduced many legal rights and privileges to women that they had not previously enjoyed” (Brodd 517). This quote shows a huge separation between Islam and other worldly religions. Islam was a bit more lenient with its role of women in the religion. The Qur’an also makes it difficult for men to use its scripture to justify oppressive behavior, but it does not make it impossible. In muslim tradition, muslim men are allowed to marry up to four wives if he is able to take care of them all, but women do not have that luxury. This is one example of patriarchy dictating the role of women in this religion. The marrying of multiple women is not the only oppressive behavior that exists in Islam. Early in Islamic history, women with prominent roles had been introduced in the Qur’an, but Muslim men were still the ones who interpreted it. Muslim Women and Post-Patriarchal stated, “It is necessary to point out that through the centuries of Muslim history, these sources have been interpreted only by Muslim men, who have arrogated to themselves the task of defining the ontological, theological, sociological, and eschatological