Essay on Organized Religion’s Role in the Oppression of Women

Today, when religious organizations eliminate females from their rituals and hierarchies, the predictable implication is that ladies are inferior. Religious groups have to stand up for a simple moral notion: any person’s rights should be holy, and not depend on something as material as sexual characteristics. What’s more, together with more commonplace injustices, like slapping the girlfriend or paying female workers less for the work ”“ serious offences arise out of a societal context in which females are second-class citizens. That is a context that religions have assisted to shape, and not pushed hard to alter. Females are prevented from playing an equal and full role in faiths, creating surroundings in which violations against ladies are justified (The Spark). There is always a direct link between religion and the patriarchal cultures in which the religion occurs. Many religious leaders sanctified current social structures, instead of pushing for justice. Naturally, it is hard for religions to take a stand against the oppression of females when the patriarchic officials of the religions discriminate against ladies by having discriminatory rules for how females are treated within the church. In this paper I will try to prove that religion provides patriarchal support for the subjugation of females. And the thesis of this paper is: organized religion provides patriarchal support for the oppression of women.

Dehumanization of Women

When the humanity initially walked on this planet the man was a hunter-gatherer. The women had an equivalent role in the survival. But when people go past the fundamental need for survival, patriarchy became the standard in the social order. With the adding of religion as a driving force of the social order and culture, the role of females altered radically (Ramazanoglu, 152-155). And the increase of organized religion only continued the issue with its blame of ladies for the “original sin.” Females as populace have been dominated and controlled in the name of God and, according to the scripture, by divine providence. Still, in the economically wealthy and God-fearing nation of America, females have not obtained actual parity but it is closer than they have been in a long time.

Religion as we know it nowadays dates back to 2000 BC with the organization of Judaism and Hinduism followed by Christianity whose morals appeared from Greco-Roman mores and the social order. All current religions have seen revolt and disturbance over time with all dividing into disconnected sub-branches based on idea and interpretation of different religious prophets or scriptures. Buddhism grew out of Hinduism. Christianity is today separated into lots of branches representing various cultures, doctrine, practice and history. The main branches of Christianity comprise Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Pentecostal. The question arises: how have females faired with these various religions? Once they matured, all were comparable in the treatment of ladies, with females playing subordinate roles in a church. The church represents the social order even when church and state are kept divided, as in the USA (Andersen, Witham, 21-38). Religion is generally described as a certain system of faith about divinity that promotes morals, a philosophy of living, and a worldview. Religion gives expectations and structure. With the appearance of religion, the church became the core of living for many people. The culture at the time of the organization of religious practices was first and foremost patriarchal in organization. Patriarchy translates accurately as “rule by the father” and is a social system, which grants advantaged position to men and allows their domination of women. For most of the conventional religions, patriarchy fits satisfactorily with the teachings.

Males are the rulers and the women’s aim is to serve men. This is accomplished in many ways based on which religion you look at. Some of the most harmful suppression of ladies comprises being deprived of learning and constraint of activities and certain social contact. Extremists within every religion usually treat females most severely. Let’s discuss 5 major religions and inspect their treatment of ladies.