Faithful Women: Lived Religion and Citizenship, Gender Equality and Feminism

Abstract

We started this book by asking whether and how religion is a resource and a barrier to women’s citizenship, perceived by religious women themselves and also by us as academic feminists. In our view, the feminist concern that women are drawn to religious traditions and institutions that practise gender inequality must be addressed via careful and contextual studies that involve the voices of religious women themselves. Do religious women comply with, resist or subvert gender inequalities within their own communities? How, and why? The raising of such questions suggests a focus on religious women’s agency and submission and on gender equality and women’s rights. In this book we have discussed whether and how religion is a resource and a barrier to women’s citizenship through an exploration of how Christian and Muslim women in Europe live their faith in everyday life (Chapter 3), how they perceive and practise citizenship (Chapter 4) and how they view and relate to gender equality (Chapter 5) and to women’s movements and feminism (Chapter 6). The questions we posed were: What do women of religious faith think about citizenship, and how they practise citizenship in their everyday life? What is the importance of faith in their lives, and how is religion bound up with other identities such as gender and nationality? How do religious women conceptualize ‘gender equality’, and what do they think about women’s movements and about feminism? We addressed these questions through the lenses of religious women’s lived citizenship, their lived religion and gender.