Religion, Gender, and Interculturality: Young Women Constructing and Navigating Difference

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper responds to growing acknowledgement that the role of gender and religion are under-researched in studies of interculturality. Although religion and gender are often invoked as two of the many axes of difference that comprise identities and influence interactions between individuals, they have not received the level of attention that race and ethnicity have in studies of intercultural relations. Questions of gender remain unanswered in discussions of interculturality (Gregoriou, Z., 2013. Traversing New Theoretical Frames for Intercultural Education: Gender, Intersectionality, Performativity. International Education Studies, 6 (3), 179–91, p. 187) and while religion is often explored in the sociologies of education and/or youth, its impact on interculturality is under-theorised. In this paper, I explore the ways that religion influences girls’ take up of particular discourses, how they use these discourses to construct themselves and others, and how this shapes their engagement with interculturality. First, I look at how girls establish their positions on religious diversity. Then, I interrogate how they deploy discourses of gender to constitute themselves and others. Drawing on empirical data from a study of young women and interculturality, the paper suggests that girls from minoritised ethnic/racial and religious backgrounds are more likely to engage with interculturality on matters of religion and gender than girls who hold majoritised positions in Australian society.