In East Asia, women were subjected to a strong patriarchal authority. Through the use of foot binding (implemented when they were young) freedom was especially limited. Such as in present day Saudi Arabia women barely had any rights and were thought of as owned and a service to their husbands. Women in present day Saudi Arabia can’t go anywhere without a man and must wear a niqab or a burka to hide them from the affection of other men. Unlike Saudi Arabia today, East Asian women bind their feet to make them appeal more attractive to men.
* In many of the Muslim countries, it is not only the woman who have barely any rights, but also the men are treated the same. It is not the religion to which treats women unfairly , but it is the government oppression of men. * People are under the idea that Islam teachings do encourage the oppression of woman, but in fact the teachings of Muhammad enforce men to respect the rights of women. * The Qur’an states ‘woman shall have rights similar to those of men’. But in the west this statement is misinterpreted which shows specific issues and differences.
Assignment 1a: Beliefs in Society ”Religion is more a cause of conflict than of harmony in society.” To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view? (33 marks) Feminists agree that religion serves to maintain the status quota, however they believe that means maintaining patriarchy. Feminists most religions as patriarchal, meaning that religion is 'male dominated', they also view religion as actively oppressing women in order to maintain patriarchy. Examples of this include Aldridge's (2007) findings in the Qur'an, noting that women are legally inferior to men and lacking the same rights as their husbands. This example can be seen by feminists as maintaining patriarchy in society so that women have less or different rights to men, meaning that men have more freedom to do what they want, while women are observed much more closely.
In addition, it was socially and morally unacceptable for a woman to be unmarried. Victorian women were forced to live by a number of certain rules, however men lived more freely. They were not judged as harshly by society as women. The different male and female roles were referred to as ‘separate spheres’ and women were often perceived as inferior to men. Source 1 states that the gender difference idea was taken from the Bible, as ‘God has’ ‘designed’ men and women to have different roles.
Such as women can not perform manual work as well as men, on the other hand, a man’s entire chemistry is different allowing him to be less emotional than a woman. Jane Addams and her colleague Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House a place for down and out women. Jane treated these women as friends and ignoring their faults, became very close to these women. Being close to these women allowed Jane to understand their struggle but much of the information she gathered remained unpublished. She saw social differentiation as a block that society needed to get over, infuriately she herself was a victim.
The reformation period brought fundamental change to the structure of the family, and thus when assessing the question of which offered more to women: Protestantism or Catholicism, it is important to draw upon evidence that predates the Protestant reformation in order to decipher whether the impact it had upon women was beneficial or not. What remains consistent across both Christian denominations however is that there was a marginal difference between female blessedness and female heresy. Highlighting that both faiths were similar to some extent in what they offered to women, even if they differed in what areas of society they did this. Luther’s domestication of women narrowed women’s options, because marriage became the only honorable way to live in a Protestant society. Therefore, Protestantism offered less to the unmarried women than that of a Catholic community where there was the option to join a convent.
Women in Hinduism In Hinduism there are many aspects one has to consider that differ from other religions: for example what role women play and how they are portrayed. Furthermore, in Hindu religion there are many traditions that have not changed over time, thus, many restrictions still exist among women. Though, there may have been some changes over time due to modernity and technology, Hindu women have yet to gain a proper place in their society and are still not on par with women from different societies. Hindu women have been portrayed in Hindu literature throughout their history as people of high stature to being of the lowliest status people around (Narayan, 2005). Hindu women from higher castes are expected to have more restrictions and expectations placed upon them.
Reform Jews have given women the opportunity and also an equal status and they participate in Jewish practice. Other forms of Judaism such as Orthodox still abide by the Talmud and are quite strict. Orthodox Jews do not like women mixing with men in the synagogue as they can be seen as distracting. On the other hand Reform Jews allows women to actually read from the Torah. Orthodox Jews believe that women play an important role in the home rearing children and being a wife.
Most of us might blame the situation of Saudi women on a strict and intolerant religion, a lack of education or even a lack of awareness of Saudi women about their rights. Some of these assumptions may be partially or entirely correct, but why is it that other Muslim countries such as Jordan, treat their women better? Can religion be blamed for the treatment of Saudi women? According to popular belief, the women’s biggest oppressor in Saudi Arabia is the Sharia laws, or Islamic law. Surprisingly Sharia laws ought to have offered liberation to women across Saudi (Rahman p 356-9).
As the former role was commonly seen as more valuable than the latter, this often meant that the husband held most of the power, such as deciding where they would live, how resources were distributed, etc. In theory, the distribution of power in the relationship has shifted due to both the integration of women into the workforce and the emergence of the “new man” who does a fair share of domestic labour. However, this is not necessarily borne out by the evidence. Dryden (1999) studied 17 married couples and found that women still do the vast majority of housework. This could almost be dismissed as a hangover from traditional values or the result of still-prominent stay-at-home mothers, except that it remains true when both members are working full-time, and even in some cases where only the woman is in employment.