Feminism and World Religions

Abstract

There are several ways in which teachers might introduce feminist studies into the mainstream of world religions. Perhaps the best way to proceed would be for me to sketch my own teaching efforts (which have criss-crossed the world religions and Christianity), so that the reader will have one fairly full model against which to react. I apologize for the self-advertising this will entail.I began with a dual focus. On the one hand, I was asked to teach a course on “Women and Religion” that would serve a developing Women's Studies program (first at Penn State, then at Wichita State). The program was composed of various “Women and …” courses: “Women and Business,” “Women and the Law,” “The Psychology of Women,” “The Sociology of Women,” etc. On the other hand, I was asked to represent feminist scholarship and feminist interests within my home-base departments of Religious Studies. This meant cross-listing the course on “Women and Religion” as a Religious Studies elective, but also providing for feminist issues in other, usually general courses, such as “Introduction to Religion,” “Christianity,” “Traditional Religion in the Modern World,” and the like.