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Philosophy/religion

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Jehovah's Witness - Gender Roles?

4 replies

fluffyduckie · 08/01/2014 22:38

I was given a Jehovah's Witness magazine on my doorstep and looked up one of the books on line - The Secret of Family Happiness. I have had a quick look but would I be right in thinking that they have the old fashioned sort of roles for men and women?

OP posts:
sashh · 09/01/2014 07:51

Yes.

If you ever have a woman JW knocking on your door she will be in a skirt not trousers. She might wear them elsewhere but not when at Kingdom Hall or 'witnessing'

stressedHEmum · 09/01/2014 09:58

Yes, very traditional gender roles.

At home, men are the head of the family so a woman is submissive to and under the authority of her father until she marries and then her husband.

In a church setting, as it were, women are not allowed leadership roles of any kind. They are allowed to teach children but only under the auspices of men. They must wear skirts to services and out on the preaching work. If a qualified brother is out on the work with a woman she must either not lead the study/preaching or she should wear a hat to cover her hair a a symbol of her submission to the man.

Men are expected to provide for their families women are encouraged to take a secondary role in this - it's better of they can stay at home and look after the children/spend time on the preaching work.

I don't know about nowadays, but women in particular were always discouraged from pursuing education because worldly learning isn't important, only learning about Jehovah and his plan. Although, to be fair, men were never really encouraged to pursue learning either, unless in spheres that might be useful to the WBTS. Work was always of secondary importance to preaching and bible study so we were encouraged just to have basic jobs to give us a basic standard of living, so that we didn't get caught up in the pusuit of worldly things.

fluffyduckie · 09/01/2014 21:34

I noticed the skirt thing but it was two women that I saw.

Are the women housewives once they get married?

What if there was an older experienced woman and a new man - would he still be the leader even if she knew more?

OP posts:
stressedHEmum · 09/01/2014 22:27

Do you mean on the preaching work?

Yes, as long as the man was a baptised publisher, then he would be the leader. The woman might take the lead if he agreed but she would have to cover her hair to do so to show that she was still subject to the man's authority.

Mostly the women are housewives, yes, or at least they always used to be. If they have a job, it won't be the main wage in the house because JWs believe that it is a man's Christian duty to provide for his family.

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