Women's studies and gender studies

About the discipline

Over millennia, women’s lives have often been defined by religion. The earliest religions are believed to have revered female fertility and to have worshipped goddesses. Later religions brought polytheistic male and female gods and the idea of a male supreme deity. Religions have brought with them proscriptions for female behavior, rules about treating women and views of women that have ranged from empowering to devaluing. Religious beliefs have been behind many of women’s oppressions as well as advances. Beliefs about women’s roles in religious leadership, worship and ideology of the divine have impacted women’s experiences through the present day. Read More »

Articles

  • “Religiosity and Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Latina Adolescents: Trends from 1995 to 2008″ by Lisa M. Edwards, Kristin Haglund, Richard J. Fehring, and Jessica Pruszynski. Journal of Women’s Health. Vol. 20, No. 6 (2011).
  • “Women and the Dura-Europos Synagogue Paintings” by Faith Steinberg. Religion and the Arts. 10, no. 4 (2006): 461-96.
  • “Battered Black Women’s Use of Religious Services and Spirituality for Assistance in Leaving Abusive Relationships” Hillary Potter. Violence Against Women. Vol. 13, No. 3 (2007): 262-84.
  • “God Hates Cowboys (Kind Of)” by Michael Cobb. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Vol. 13, No. 1 (2007): 102-5.
  • “Contraceptive Counseling for Orthodox Jewish Women” by Ronit Haimov-Kochman and Drorith Hochner-Celinkier. European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care. Vol. 12, No. 1 (2007): 13-8.
  • “Childbirth in Ancient Rome: From Traditional Folklore to Obstetrics” by Donald Todman, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. Vol. 47, No. 2 (2007): 82-5.
  • “Is Female Genital Mutilation an Islamic Problem?” by Thomas Von der Osten-Sacken and Thomas Uwer. Middle East Quarterly. Vol. 14, No. 1 (2007): 29-36.
  • “Islamic Politics, Human Rights and Women’s Claims for Equality in Iran” by Shahra Razavi. Third World Quarterly. Vol. 27, No. 7 (2006): 1223-37.
  • “Veiled Women and the Affect of Religion in Democracy” by Stewart Motha. Journal of Law & Society. Vol. 34, No. 1 (2007): 139-62.
  • “Manufacturing a Feminized Siege Mentality” by Meera Sehgal. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. Vol. 36, No. 2 (2007): 165-83.
  • “A Simplified Approach to Religious Infertility” by Yael Yairi-Oron, Jacob Rabinson and Raoul Orvieto. Fertility and Sterility. Vol. 86, No. 6 (2006): 1771-2.
  • “Beyond the Nuclear Family? Familism and Gender Ideology in Diverse Religious Communities” by Penny Edgell and Danielle Docka. Sociological Forum. Vol. 22, No. 1 (2007): 26-51.
  • “The Occult Novels of Dion Fortune” by Susan Johnston Graf. Journal of Gender Studies. Vol. 16, No. 1 (2007): 47-56.
  • “Sociological Explorations: What is Religious Agency?” by Laura M. Leming. Sociological Quarterly. Vol. 48, No. 1 (2007): 73-92.
  • “Feminism, Sexuality, and the Return of Religion: Lessons from Women’s Studies in the Bible Belt” by Carol Mason. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Women’s Studies Association, St. Charles, Ill., Pheasant Run, Jun 28, 2007.
  • “Gender, Religion, and Feminism: The Case of Jewish Israeli Traditionalists” by Yaacov Yadgar. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Sept. 2006): 353 – 370.
  • “Missing Mary: the Queen of Heaven and Her Re-emergence In the Modern Church” by Charlene Spretnak. Religious Studies Review, Vol. 32, No. 2 (April 2006): 105 – 105.
  • “Religion, agency, and power in Jewish gender studies” by Robin Judd. Journal of Women’s History, March 22, 2003.
  • “Gender and Religiousness: Can Socialization Explanations Be Saved?” by Alan S. Miller and Rodney Stark. American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 107, No. 6 (May 2002).
  • “Quebec plans to guarantee gender equality in Charter; Move intended to balance arguments about religious freedom taking precedence” by Rheal Seguin. The Globe and Mail (Canada), Dec. 13, 2007.
  • “The burqa ‘is not welcome’ in France, says Sarkozy” by Paola Totaro. The Age (Melbourne, Australia), June 24, 2009.
  • “What happened to the women? They’re missing in tomes, pews” by Julia Duin. The Washington Times, July 6, 2008.
  • “God moves in a gender neutral way” by Ruth Gledhill. The Times (London), May 19, 2008.

Books

  • Women, Gender, and Radical Religion in Early Modern Europe. Sylvia Monica Brown (ed.). BRILL, 2007.
  • Gender and Christianity in Medieval Europe: New Perspectives. Lisa M. Bitel and Felice Lifshitz (eds.). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
  • Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse: Thinking Beyond Thecla. Caroline Vander Stichele and Todd Penner. T & T Clark International, 2009.
  • Women’s Studies in Religion: A Multicultural Reader. Kate Bagley and Kathleen McIntosh. Prentice Hall, 2006.
  • Literature, Theology and Feminism. Heather Walton. Manchester University Press, 2008.
  • Women in Religion. Mary Pat Fisher. Longman, 2006.
  • A Feminist Philosophy of Religion. Pamela Sue Anderson. Blackwell Pub., 1997.
  • Women in scripture: a dictionary of named and unnamed women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books, and the New Testament. Carol L. Meyers, Toni Craven and Ross Shepard Kraemer. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000.
  • Feminism in the study of religion: a reader. Darlene M. Juschka. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001.
  • Reason, Religion, and Morals. Frances Wright. Humanity Books, 2004.
  • Encyclopedia of women in religious art. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona. Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Man’s Dominion: The Rise of Religion and the Eclipse of Women’s Rights. Sheila Jeffreys. Routledge, 2011.
  • Faith, Belief, and Scripture: Anglicanism and Homosexuality. Rob James. Common Ground Publishing, 2011.
  • Women, gender, religion: a reader. Elizabeth Anne Castelli and Rosamond C. Rodman (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
  • Encountering the transnational: women, Islam and the politics of interpretation. Meena Sharify-Funk. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008.
  • A Biblical Case for Equality. Arden Thiessen Essence Publishing, 2002.
  • Being Feminist, Being Christian: Essays from Academia. Bettina Tate Pedersen. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
  • Gender, Religion and Diversity: Cross-cultural Perspectives.Ursula King(ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2005.

Case studies

Codes of ethics

Journals

More links

Professional associations and faith groups

Recent research

  • Bettencourt, Kathryn E. Fitzpatrick; Tammi Vacha-Haase and Zinta S. Byrne. “Older and Younger Adults’ Attitudes Toward Feminism: The Influence of Religiosity, Political Orientation, Gender, Education, and Family.” Sex Roles. Vol. 64, Nos. 11-12 (June 2011): 863-74.
  • Levy, Yagil. “The Clash between Feminism and Religion in the Israeli Military: A Multilayered Analysis.” Social Politics. Vol. 17, No. 2 (2010): 185-209.
  • Razavi, Shahra and Anne Jenichen. “The Unhappy Marriage of Religion and Politics: problems and pitfalls for gender equality.” Third World Quarterly. Vol. 31, No. 6 (2010): 833-50.
  • Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. “Mormon Women in the History of Second-Wave Feminism.” Dialogue – A Journal of Mormon Thought. Vol. 43, No. 2 (Summer 2010): 45-63.

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