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feminism and gender studies
social inequality theory
The role of a woman in the Catholic Church today
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This paper is from a catholic feminist’s perceptive that the church, as an institution, is structured as a pyramid modeled on the patriarchal family with the custom of father-right. The patriarchal decision-maker has the power to shape, form and control the “poor of the world” (McCormick, pg. 240) mirroring the aspect of the conflict theory. The poor of the world are the people who work for the institution of the Church controlled by the patriarchal power elite. These established masses of people feel no control, which cause anxiety and they continue to perform their means of production as a formed unit. The power elite’s fear of being overthrown by the poor of the world is fueled with sheer determination and consistency to stay on top. In the article “Sociology and Sexuality” women and women’s sexuality is stated to be oppressed with the poor of the people and is examined through human rights, religious desacralization, religious sacralization, women’s human rights and social conditioning.
The concern for human rights is for the two-thirds of the people who live below the level of endurance but have the knowledge of the lack of social relations in the world of distributing goods. The poor is aware of their civil rights to take part in decisions that will affect their lives such as developing resources of places where they would live instead of having those resources used in the interest of the powerful nations of the world and multinational corporations. The right to life of these people is systematically denied in social systems. Liberation Theology is a direct approach in being freed from this structure. This is where people mediate on the Gospel in company with the poor and by the mandate of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World to help and work with the poor for their own liberation. This movement aroused the re-ordering of priorities for the structure of the church, which was visible in the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the church to where the people of the church are first priority rather than the hierarchy structure in serving needs. With this structural change, people are beginning to see the need to change and recognized the development of human beings and not on the rule of elite’s in the model of fathers over children. Self-representation is part of the process of the development of people.
Pope Paul in ...
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...eral problem of the male-dominated theological language, liturgy, and religious education denying women a place to celebrate life in the church. The theological language has its roots through patriarchal family terms because of generic masculinity. For example, the word Father referring to “your Father who is in Heaven” (247) allows paternal exploitation to grow.
Through women’s research of human life they discover their common oppression with the poor. Although the poor of the people and women are trying to construct a structural change of the church from the pyramidal patriarchal family to a new circular symbol of unity, they have enormous implications of conditioning that makes it hard to break the pattern of this strongly grounded pyramid. Men still write about and research priesthood without considering the issue the ordination of women. The development of human beings and not on the rule of elite’s in the model of fathers over children needs to be further recognized.
McCormick. Feminists Ethics And The Catholic Moral Tradition. Reading in Moral
Theology No. 9 “Sociology and Sexuality: A Feminist Perspective,”
Paulist Press. New York, 1996
Women were the subject of marginalization ever since the very beginning of Christianity. They were viewed as a “second Eve” (92) who did not deserve the same attention as men. Women were treated as second class citizens. They were willfully ignored by members of the Christianity
Religion is a symbolic representation of society. The sociological approach to religious belief looks at how society behaves on a whole, to answer the question, “Why are people religious?” We express our participation in religious events through plays, acts of confession, religious dances, etc. To begin to understand why we have such term, let’s understand the common elements of religion. There are different types in which people believe in or follow and that is: animatism, animism, ancestral spirits, god and goddesses, and minor supernatural beings. Beyond these different elements, such one is to have religious leaders to follow.
struggled “with the nature of authority more personally and internally than did most of their male peers.” William Scheick adds that “Biblically, theologically, ecclesiastically, socially, and family, women were second and the weaker sex. To be second, it hardly needs to be observed, was to be less empowered in relation to the theocratic authority that had defined one as secondary” (167).
Thus the text analysis will give instances where the portrayal of women is a reflection of the modern society which will be researched from a feminist point of view. To sum up, feminism plays an important role to uphold women’s right, and their status in a society. Furthermore, it is use to bid for human equality based on gender context. We can conclude that women now have the chance to decide on their
In the discourse of family relations, views of women, and sex, it is necessary to begin with the standing that Catholicism held on the issues. The nuclear family model was the ideal of the Catholic Church; for this model provided protection, stability, and business connections. Ozment describes the nuclear family as the “total subjection of the wife to home and husband, of the home to the production of children, and of the children to the will of their parents” (Ozment, pg. 2). This view provides that a woman’s only purpose in life was to marry and bear children; if this was not viable she could enter the convent as not to be a finical burden upon her family. The Catholic Church also had strict views on the topic of sex, which was no sex outside of marriage and only in marriage to procreate. This view was held for the Church believed that “an upright person took pleasure only in God and used the things of the world to God’s glory, fallen men and women were enslaved to their lust and passions, no longer masters of their wills, and eager to worship the world in place of its creator” (Ozment, pg....
Individuals in modern society often treat symbols - religious, cultural and otherwise - as absolute, often ignoring or forgetting the representative aspect of them. When combined with the patriarchy dominating and influencing our society, this is where the primary problem with symbols starts. In feminist theology, religious symbols and their respective associations, pose a great problem not only to the advancement of women’s right, but to the struggle for the equal representation of their voice, and rightly so, their experience. The role of feminist theologians in the recovery of an authentic God-language can only be achieved if there is a significant change from the male dominated religious symbolisms.
The marianismo gender role beliefs vary depending on where one is located. Marianismo beliefs influence what women see as “appropriate female behavior” (Craske, 1999, p. 12). Stereotypes of women are created which have stuck to what is ‘appropriate’ for what women can and cannot do. It is out of the normalcy for women to not follow these marianismo beliefs. It is obvious that motherhood is found as the ultimate role for women. Though it would make sense that men have fatherhood is not the ultimate role for men (even though both man and woman are needed to create a child) this is not the case at all. Another key marianismo belief Craske (2002) found was that women are “dominant in the private world of domestic organization,” while men are dominant in the public sector (p. 11). This is important to know because women lived very secluded lifestyles. This exclusive lifestyle connects to how Catholic women in Latin America had greater transgressions than men when it came...
...m played a role in ending practices such as human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide and adultery. Christianity in general affected the status of women by condemning infanticide, divorce, incest, polygamy, birth control, abortion and marital infidelity. While official Church teaching considers women and men to be equal and different, some modern activists of ordination of women and other feminists argue that the teachings by St. Paul, the Fathers of the Church and Scholastic theologians advanced the impression of a pleasingly ordained female subordination. Nevertheless, women have played prominent roles in Western history through the Catholic Church, particularly in education and healthcare, but also as influential theologians and mystics. The important status of the Virgin Mary gave views of maternal virtue and compassion a place at the heart of Western civilization.
Some sociologists claim that what changes primarily is the social system and religious change is an effect of the change in the former. It is not religion but, to a larger extent, the economy that is supposed to legitimize reality. From this perspective it is the social system that changes and this change in relation to religion means secularization, which generally speaking means the diminishing impact of religion on social life at various levels, degrees and intensities. Theories such as Luckmann’s privatization thesis or Hervieu-Le´ger’s emotional theory of religion may be categorized as giving priority to changes within the individual. The fundamental thought is that in contemporary society it is primarily the individual who changes. It is the individual that seeks direct contact with the sacral sphere, is driven by emotion, feeling, a personal and individualized need. The third current of theoretical solutions to the question of what predominates in modern and post-modern changes is the one that points to religion itself as the sphere of these changes. It is neither the society nor the individual, but rather religion that is pushed to the forefront of the phenomenon. Religion in confrontation with modernity takes on new forms which function well in the modern
Today, women share the same equal rights and opportunities as men; nevertheless, that has not invariably been the case. Before the Jazz Age era, gender discrimination between men and women in society was considerably popular. Women were seen as inferior to men. Their jobs were to care for the home, children, and other domesticated duties while men were able to work, get an education, and become doctors or lawyers. Many women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Zora Hurston, to mention a few, seen the unfairness in women's rights and fought for equal rights for women through different movements, efforts, protests, and even marches to abolish women’s rights. As a consequence, women now pursue not only higher education and higher paid jobs/ businesses, but their rights. One of the world’s most controversial issues among churches of today is the role of a woman. Many people are confused about the duty of a woman and how she is supposed to serve God because of history. History taught us to never deny someone of gender, race, or even diversity since he or she has human rights. However, this issue should not be viewed as men versus women because this is not a political issue; instead, it should be viewed as the structural of a church. Women should not be priests, pastors, or even rabbis for God condone women for being priests, pastors, and rabbis as well as proscribed.
The Society Religion as a Social Glue The view in the title is a functionalist’s view. Durkheim claims that religion is to do with the sacred and certain things, people and places are perceived to be sacred for example Jesus Christ, totem and the Tajmahal. He claims that what people perceive to be sacred are actually symbols of a collective consciousness. By worshipping these sacred things etc. they are actually reinforcing the beliefs, values, norms and tradition which make social life possible.
Sociology in its basic most broad definition is the study of society and social behavior. Which includes all variables that govern and affect how masses act and react under different circumstances. This includes values, traditions, morals, ethnic identity and most importantly; religion. Religion has been, for as long as humans existed on this earth, the foremost perception that controls society and govern its behavior. Some would even argue that religion is the source of human morals, traditions and values.
“Religion is a ritualized system of beliefs and practices related to things defined as sacred by an organized community of believers.” (Basirico et.al. 379). Religion is an important element in the society because it influences the way individuals act and think. It has shaped the relationship and bonding among families as well as influenced the decision made in economics and politics. Religion in general has contributed to shape a society and a government structure which will influence the way the individuals under certain governmental structure behave. Sociologists are interested in religion mainly because religious belief is heavily rooted in individuals’ lives and it helps sociologists to interpret human’s actions, expression, and experiences. Due to its significance in society, sociologists try to study religion in depth to explain and understanding religions beyond science. Supernatural belief, which is the core of religion, cannot be explained using science which relies only on facts and data. According to Emile Durkheim, religion consists of three elements, a system of beliefs and practices, a community or church, and sacred things which are common throughout all religions. Although a lot of people may have thought that sociological studies in religion will undermine one’s faith towards their beliefs, in my opinion, sociological perspective in religion will have no effect on one’s faith toward their beliefs.
“Today I appeal to the whole Church community to be willing to foster feminine participation in every way in its internal life. This is certainly not a new commitment, since it is inspired by the example of Christ himself….nevertheless, he also involved women in the cause of his kingdom; indeed he wanted them to be the first witnesses and heralds of his resurrection. In fact, there are many women who have distinguished themselves in the Church’s history by their holiness and hardworking ingenuity.”
For thousands of centuries literature has been used as a clever device to show the negative outlook in which society has on women at that time. The common theme of men exploiting women for personal gain and using their heavy-handed power to make women feel inferior can be seen in writings from the ancient Greeks all the through authors of the 20th century. Writers and intellectual thinkers such as Plato, Peter Abelard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henrik Ibsen, and even women such as Virgina Wolfe, and Fatima Mernissi have all written about the struggles caused by domineering men which women have fought against for so long. It is not until the late twentieth century that we see a positive almost spiritual view of women from the stories told by Gao Xingjan in his book One Man’s Bible. The 1994 publication of Fatima Mernissi’s memoirs of her girlhood in a harem spoke powerfully in favor of women shedding prescribed gender roles in favor of embracing their own identities. It is books such as Fatima’s and Gao’s which will help carry out feminist movements into the 21st century.