Can I pick your brains on feminism and religion?

[WeirdCatLady]

Hi all, this is my first post in FWR, though I am a long time MNer.

I'm doing an Open University degree and my current subject matter is religion. For my big end of module assignment I'm writing about the Feminisation of religion (mostly Christianity - referencing female bishops etc) versus the traditional Patriarchal Religions (Orthodox Judaism - using female rabbis since Regina Jonas, and Islam - discussing veiling).

I have some nice academic sources already but wondered if any of you could point me towards anything else. It needs to be something 'weighty' (I can't use personal blog info for example) though I could do with it being freely available on the Internet (as I can't afford to buy books and my local libraries have nothing).

Ideally I'd like an academic journal which discusses the role of women in religion and how that has changed since the 1930's but anything will be helpful.

Thanks in advance x

No advice on your subject in particular, but have you talked to your library about inter-library loan requests? They should be able to get a wider range of books from other nearby libraries.

Good idea re library
I think I remember a book by Mary Daly called Gyn-Ecology which covered some very interesting points re early organised religion taking over/replacing/subverting the female goddess roles/rites/celebrations

Could be way off and also could be off about feminist perspective as it's years since I read her but from memory Marina Warner had some interesting stuff - some about the alternative religions and literary representation, but some ideas about Catholicism too. Hazy memories!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Warner

www.fsrinc.org/jfsr

www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=nashim (On Judaism, but might be useful)

Journal of Feminist Philosophy might be useful.

Have you looked in Ethos? Searchable list of dissertations. ethos.bl.uk/Home.do;jsessionid=78FEB99D1886A81559D2E373660012AA

I work on medieval religion and if that's at all your thing I can point you to sources a bit there, but it's probably not!

If you want to venture into the neo-pagan religions, then perhaps Triumph of the Moon by Professor Ronald Hutton - the second half of the book has some stuff about the role of women in modern paganism. Joanne Pearson wrote a book called "Wicca and the Christian Heritage", which I believe was based on her thesis or dissertation.

Mary Daly's books "The Church and the Second Sex" (published 1968) and "Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation" (published 1973) would give you a detailed radical feminist critique of the patriarchal aspects of religion.

Thanks guys, I'll check them all out

You might also mention the Quakers, who've always had a belief that God is inherent in everyone equally, and maybe say that they were there first, but now a religious belief in equality is much less remarkable. That gives you an opportunity to include the infamous Samuel Johnson quote. (About a dog walking on its hind legs...)

This article about the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women in the US Episcopal Church has some references to works which might be relevant to your research.

ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/episcopal-church-celebrates-40-years-women-priesthood

If you're interested in venturing outside of Judeo-Christian traditions, you might want to take a look at Alevism, a branch of Islam prevalent in Turkey and parts of Albania, which - while the social structures generally mirror the patriarchal attitudes in Islam in general - traditionally lays great emphasis on the rights and especially the education of women. See if you can get hold of "The Cultural Construction of Alevi Female Identity" by Sevgi Kilic or "Gendered Identities: Criticizing Patriarchy in Turkey" ed. Rasim Ösgür Dönmez & Fazilet Ahu Özmen if you're interested.

If you are referencing female bishops in the CofE, don't forget to keep in mind that there are some big differences between Christian denominations. As well as Quakers, Methodism has been ordaining women for 40 years plus:

40 years of women's ordination in Methodism

Also some interesting stuff about female leadership in early Methodism here: old.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/methodist/using/womeninmethodism/roleofwomen/

Thanks again guys, yeah, ive got a lot from the OU library, and some of the suggestions on here have nicely filled in the gaps x

Nawal Al Saadawi and Fatima Mernissi have written interesting things about veiling, as has Mona El Tahawey very recently. There's lots more to think about wrt women and islam eg female imams in China, the inclusive mosque in Vancouver, Amina Wadud leading prayers.

I find the church of Scotland interesting wrt women as moderators etc as well as ministers.

But I'll always have a soft spot for Mary Daly.

there is also Asma Barlas and Ziba Mir Hosseini of the organisation Musawa. their audience is muslim women themselves and so along with Amina Wadud they write from within the religious and legal Islamic tradition about subjects such as female religious leadership, face and hair covering, male headship in family law and other matters. A small introduction to the works of Ziba Mir Hosseini here:
time.com/3751243/muslim-women-redefine-islam-feminism/

Women as imams are usually only seen in female only mosques such as this women only mosque recently opened in the USA

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-31564683

There's a long tradition of such mosques in China and Lebanon also but otherwise they are uncommon in many muslim communities.

There's one opening in Bradford soon - I wonder if they'll have alimahs leading prayers.

I was going to suggest you also look outside 'mainstream' Christianity into some of the newer Christian churches, specifically those based on African (mainly Nigerian) churches in the UK. Very different environment, very different attitude to women (very sexist IMO). They are booming. Literally hundred and hundreds of these churches and I find their version of Christianity disturbing in some respects (although not essentially different to more conservative mainstream Christianity). Here's a link to a paper written by someone with a Phd - don't know if it in itself has been published academically. It does have very interesting info and the reference list at the end should be very useful to you. unilorin.edu.ng/publications/olademoo/YORUBA%2033zz.doc