Salt Lake Community College

Position Paper

Unfair Treatment of Women Within Religion

Sasha Booker

Professor Jacobs

World Religions

November 30, 2018

 Booker 1

Religion’s Unfair Treatment Towards Women

How fairly women have been treated within their religion is a tough topic to navigate for

many reasons, including historic rules turned to comfortable norms, and reforms introduced to

women without seeking the advice of said women. There are in fact, few religions where we can

witness a man and a woman treated equally. This unjust treatment dates way back in history, but

even today, we can see that there are still very few religions that treat women with true equality,

leaving examiners wondering, which came first: unfair treatment towards women, or religious

norms?

Tracing The Unfair Treatment Of Women Within Religion

While all the great men within all religions were given life by a woman, there it is a very small

percentage of fair treatment towards said women within major religions. It is true that historic religions

including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and others are now attempting to restore their

misogynistic view of females, however, the majority of these ancient religions started out embarrassingly

sexist. Within the Christian religion, it is said that it was Jesus himself that even saw women as worthy to

join in his presence. ​“​In his inclusive “table fellowship,” he ate with people of all sorts, including

those designated as impure by Jewish law in order to preserve Temple purity. These

marginalized people included all women because of menstruation and childbirth;” Today, it

might seem absurd that a female would be deemed impure because she is capable of childbirth,

but hopefully that only shows how far we have come.

 Booker 2

True Feminism within Religion

There are, of course, some religions that stand out as perhaps a more feminist take on a

woman’s place as a practicing member. Jainism is known as one of these few religions.

Considering how complex a woman’s place is within religion though, it shouldn’t be surprising

that even within the liberal religion, Jainism, a woman’s fate isn’t as simple as “equal.” The

Religious views are somewhat split into two sides: “​Digambaras believe that women cannot

become so pure that they could rise to the highest heaven or so impure that they would be reborn

in the lowest hell; they cannot renounce clothes and be naked; they cannot be such skillful

debaters as men; they are of inferior status in society and in the monastic order. They can be

liberated only if they are reborn in a man’s body.”

While a perk of being a woman within Digambara practice means that she could not be

considered so impure that she would be reborn into hell, subjectively we must admit, the cons of

being a woman seem to outweigh the pros. Fortunately for those with this similar viewpoint

within the religion, a second branch exists: Shvetambaras. Being a female Shevtambra means

more liberation within the religion, but if a woman is looking for true equality, the scale is still

far from tilted in her favor. “Shvetambaras feel that women are capable of the same spiritual

achievements as men, and that the nineteenth Tirthankara was a woman. In truth, even

Shvetambara nuns are of lower status than monks, but they still comprise the great majority of

Jain nuns.” While it is disappointing that even after achieving such greatness as acquiring nun
 Booker 3

status, women as still looked down on compared to monks, still Shvetambara does embrace

females much more than most religions.

Women’s Treatment Reform Within Religions

In the scheme of all of the mainstream religions out there, it can feel like Shvetambara is

within the small percentage of Religions getting fair treatment of woman right the early on.

Today, we can see the efforts of Catholics trying to rewrite the rules as a necessary adjustment as

modern females have simply had enough.

“​Pope Francis inherited a Roman Catholic Church in which there is controversy over

participation by women (who are not allowed by the Vatican to be priests), and widespread

disregard of existing papal prohibitions on effective birth control, abortion, test-tube conception,

surrogate motherhood, genetic experimentation, divorce, and homosexuality. These topics are

under lively discussion, with considerable resistance to Pope Francis’s liberal views from

conservative Catholic leaders. Liberals argue that contemporary realities force a rethinking of

dogmas such as the traditional Catholic ban on birth control.” ​(Fisher, Mary Pat. ​Living

Religions.​ Pearson, 2017.) ​ W

​ hile Catholic women have to think about birth control, abortion,
 Booker 4

etc., it’s worth pointing out that a man could likely say a certain number of Hail Mary

verses to feel a clear conscience.

Call For Reform From An Ignorant Perspective

Certainly worse than recognizing women’s issues too late in the game, is using women as

political pawns by creating new laws banning women from practicing the rituals they believe in.

Let us look at how outsiders like Europeans have treated Islamic women. For example, as of

2011, face veils were banned in France.

Considering that these women were taught that modest clothing including face veils and

headscarves are worn to protect them against harm such as molestation, many of us can only

imagine how frightening the idea of being stripped of their security would be to an Islamic

woman. France is not the only ignorant source attempting to “liberate” these women by axing

rules they never understood in the first place.

“Turkey, long home to Ataturk’s secular vision, is now engaged in power struggles

between secularists, devout Muslims, and hardline Islamists. This conflict leads to paradoxical

situations. For instance, women are prohibited from wearing traditional headscarves in

universities. Religiously observant women who do not want to give up their headscarves and

expose their hair publicly are now resorting to an unusual protest measure: Some students are
 Booker 5

wearing their headscarves and then jamming wigs over them when they attend classes.” ​(Fisher,

Mary Pat. ​Living Religions​. Pearson, 2017.)

The Future of Women’s Rights within Religion

The question still remains: are these changes occuring because these religions recognize

their treatment towards women has been unethical and care, or because their treatment is

unethical and will no longer been tolerated? For now, we must accept that the silver lining is, the

dialog is out there, and that indicates a change for the better is coming. Here is a message from a

religious woman: We are the ones who know how worthy we feel. We are the ones who know

what as an individual makes us comfortable or uncomfortable to wear. We are the ones who

deserve to reform needed changes. Let us not forget, women are the ones that gave life to

religious me. The men are the ones who made the rules without basis of understanding, with no

thank to their sister or their aunt or their nun. These are the men that took away our voice, told us

where, and how to stand, and what to be thankful for.

 Works Cited:

(Fisher, Mary Pat. ​Living Religions​. Pearson, 2017.)