The Roles of Men & Women (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (8062))

Religion & the Roles of Men & Women

The Roles of Men & Women

• Historically, men have held positions of greater power in society and have had more rights than women

  • For example, in the UK, women could not vote or choose to divorce their husbands for many years

  • The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) made gender discrimination illegal in the UK, but it still occurs in many situations

• Within the home, the roles of men and women have traditionally been seen as different

  • Women have the role of bringing new life into the world and have traditionally been seen as the baby’s main carer

  • A man may help and support his wife in the child’s upbringing. Traditionally, this would have meant going out to earn money for the household

• Times are changing and now each individual family decides for themselves how to divide up the family roles and responsibilities fairly

The roles of men and women in Christianity

• Although men and women were both made in the image of God, the creation story in the book of Genesis in the Bible suggests that God made women to be a ‘helpmate’ for men

• The roles of men and women within the Christian faith have historically tended to support these traditional views, based on interpreting literally Bible teachings that reflect the role of women at the time they were written

• Within the family, some traditional Christians still believe that men are the head of the family and that women must stay at home and care for the children

  • However, generally, most Christians today take a modern approach to roles within families, seeing marriage as an equal partnership between men and women who work together to make a successful family

• Within some parts of the Christian Church, the roles of men and women do vary

  • For most of Christian history, women were not allowed to be priests. Although most denominations now accept women as leaders, they are still not permitted to be priests in the Catholic or Orthodox Churches.

  • The Churches state that this is because:

    • All of the twelve apostles of Jesus were men

    • The priest at Mass takes on the role of Jesus blessing the bread and wine and because Jesus was a man, a woman cannot take on this role

    • St Paul said that women should be silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:34) which would obviously mean that they could not take on a leadership role

  • Churches that do not think that women can be priests still think that they have other gifts to offer and roles to play including:

    • Teaching Sunday School

    • Joining in with the music

    • Flower arranging

  • Protestant Christians believe that women should have the same roles as men in the church

  • The reasons the Protestant Church gives are:

    • Jesus welcomed female followers and treated them with great respect

    • Jesus appeared to women first of all after his resurrection from the dead

    • St Paul said that everyone was equal in the eyes of God

The roles of men and women in Islam

• Within the family in Islam, the roles of men and women tend to be traditional

  • There are several teachings of Islam that encourage women to take on traditional roles within the family

    • Mothers are greatly valued within Islam, having a valuable role in bringing up children.

    • Men are expected to provide financially, as the Qur’an teaches

• Although many Muslims believe it is acceptable for women to work in jobs, some Muslims think that this should only be within professions more traditionally suited to women, such as becoming a midwife

• Within worship, women have an equal obligation to men to honour Allah through prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage.

  • However, within religious leadership, women take on different roles to men

  • Traditionally, only men could be imams as the Qur’an states:

• It is not common for women to be imams today, unless they are leading a women-only mosque

• There are some key women in Islamic history such as Khadija the wife of the prophet Muhammad and Mary the mother of Jesus

• Some Muslims believe that women can perform religious duties at home,

  • However, they may think that if a female goes on Hajj, a male relative most accompany her

• Other Muslims believe that women can perform religious duties at the mosque and at home.

  • They also think that a female on Hajj doesn’t need to be accompanied by a male

Religion & Gender Equality

Gender Equality

• Gender equality means that men and women should be given the same rights and opportunities as each other

• Most people agree with the idea of gender equality in modern Britain, but it does not always happen

• Gender discrimination means acting against someone on the basis of their gender

  • There are many examples of gender discrimination, for example, paying women less money than men for doing the same job

• Gender discrimination stems from gender prejudice, which means unfairly judging someone based on their gender before the facts are known

  • Gender prejudice itself is often based on sexual stereotyping

  • This refers to fixed generalisations on how men and women should behave, for example, that women are more caring than men or are the weaker sex

  • This leads to regarding and then treating women differently from men

• While it is true that men and women have traditionally had different roles in society and in both Islam and Christianity, there is a move towards gender equality in all areas of life

Gender equality & Christianity

• There are many Christian teachings that show that men and women are created equal

  • The creation story in Genesis says that God created both men and women equal in his image (Genesis 1:28)

  • Jesus respected women greatly and welcomed them as disciples

    • The story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) showed that Jesus valued women as followers of his message and does not see their role as simply performing domestic tasks

  • Jesus appeared to women first of all after his resurrection from the dead

  • Jesus’ command to ‘love your neighbour’ applies to everyone and shows that all are equal and discrimination is wrong

  • St Paul taught that everyone was equal in the eyes of God (Galatians 3:28)

• However, the Bible contains contradictory teachings about gender equality, with some teachings reflecting the society in which it was written

  • St Paul taught that women should remain silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:34) and should obey their husbands

  • Some traditional Christians might support the idea that husbands should rule over their wives and that women should stay home and care for children

  • In the book of Genesis, God punishes Eve for being disobedient to Adam and says that he will rule over her

• Most Christians today see marriage as an equal partnership

Gender equality & Islam

• The Qur’an teaches Muslims that God created all people equal, from a single soul and with the same spiritual nature

• The Qur’an teaches that God answers everyone’s prayers and sees everyone as equal

• The Qur’an also teaches that all believers have the same religious responsibilities and will be rewarded for doing good deeds

• The prophet Muhammad said of men, ‘I command you to be kind to women.’

• Muhammad worked to unite all of the tribes into one community (ummah) under God, with justice and equality for all

• Although men and women are traditionally seen as having differing roles in the family and in prayer, Islamic law seeks to uphold the rights of women in numerous ways.

  • It recognises the full property rights of women before and after marriage

  • It allows women to keep their maiden names after marriage

  • It ensures that women are always financially supported

Religion & Gender Prejudice & Discrimination

Gender Prejudice and Discrimination

• UK laws have made gender discrimination illegal

  • The Equal Pay Act (1970) and the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) protected the rights of female workers and states that both genders have to be paid the same amount and have the same working conditions for the same job

  • The Equality Act (2010) updated the law and allowed positive action to be legal

    • This means that organisations can take positive action in workplaces to help groups of people who have been underrepresented in the past

• Despite these changes in the law, there are many professions in which one gender is underrepresented and many women still face discrimination at work

  • They may be overlooked for promotion, asked unfair questions in job interviews, or harassed because of their gender

  • It can be hard to prove that such things have happened solely because of gender

Christianity and Gender Prejudice & Discrimination

• Christians oppose all forms of prejudice and discrimination

• The Catholic Catechism says that Catholics should fight against ‘sinful inequalities’

• Some people point out that there is gender discrimination at work within the Christian faith

  • They point to the fact that women cannot be priests in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and the teaching of Pope John Paul II that ‘society should create and develop conditions favouring work in the home’ for women

• Others would say that traditional gender roles are no longer needed in the modern church

Islam and Gender Prejudice & Discrimination

• Some Muslim women face prejudice and discrimination in everyday life over issues including

  • Wearing the veil

  • Girls’ education

  • Types of employment

  • Freedom to vote

  • The right to drive in some countries

• This is caused not only by some of the teaching in the Qur’an but also by different cultural practices in some countries

• Some people point to inequalities in the way that women are treated within Islam

  • They point to the fact that women cannot pray in the same place as men within the mosque and that they are not generally imams

• The wearing of modest clothing that often includes a veil can be seen by some as a way of oppressing women

  • However, many Muslim women would argue that it is their choice and that a ban on head coverings would be just as oppressive because it removes that choice