Feminism and Religion | Beliefs in Society | A-Level Sociology

The key feminist perspectives on religion are explored in this A-Level Sociology revision video.
#alevelsociology #feminism #beliefsinsociety
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:19 Simone de Beauvoir on Religion
2:14 Mary Daly on Religion
2:56 Linda Woodhead on Religion
3:44 Nawal El Saawdawi on Religion
4:28 Jean Holm on Religion
5:12 Evaluations
MORE ON FEMINISM AND RELIGION
Most feminists argue along similar lines to functionalists and Marxists that religion acts as a conservative force, maintaining the status quo. For feminists, that status quo is a patriarchal society.
Simone De Beauvoir (1953) took a very similar view to traditional Marxists, only instead of seeing religion as assisting in the subjugation of the workwhich imbued religion with a patriarchal and sexist core. She points out that various goddesses and priestesses were replaced with male prophets.
Nawal El Sadaawi argues that religions are not the direct cause of women’s exploitation and oppression (though they are often the tool employed to this end) the cause is a patriarchal society. She argues that powerful men reinterpreted religious beliefs and ideas in order to benefit themselves.
Linda Woodhead argues that religion is not necessarily sexist or patriarchal and writes of a “religious feminism.”
For example, she argues that the veil, in Islamic societies, has been misinterpreted by some western feminists. She argues that many Muslim women choose to wear a veil and see it is a positive and liberating choice. In very restrictive patriarchal Middle-Eastern societies, women have used face veils to allow them to enter society, obtain employment and in other ways empower themselves. In western countries, some women have chosen to wear veils in order to escape the male gaze. However, Nawal El Sadaawi has described the veil as “a tool to oppress women.”
Others have suggested that religion is becoming increasingly female-dominated, particularly in western democracies. Attendance at religious services is much more common among women, for instance. However, feminists like De Beauvoir would argue that that is because women are the intended audience of the ideological messages being promoted: that women should cook, clean, have babies and tolerate inequality and oppression in exchange for rewards in the afterlife.