Women and religion

Abstract

[Extract] Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon, with its meaning varying from society to society and changing over time. Women and men are not homogeneous groups, and their lives vary depending on the place in which they live as well as their age, social class, ethnic origin and religion. Gender determines acceptable role behaviour for men and women. However, as Kimmel (2004) points out, gender also determines structures of social power:

"Gender is not simply a system of classification by which biological males and biological females are sorted, separated and socialized into equivalent sex roles. Gender also expresses the universal inequality between women and men. When we speak about gender, we also speak about hierarchy, power, and inequality, not simply difference."

In all societies, female subordination is a common denominator of the female gender, although the relations of power between men and women may be experienced and expressed differently in different societies and at different times. The United Nations Development Programme unequivocally concluded in 2001 that no society treats its women as well it does its men.