Secular Women Research Articles

De-democratization under the New Turkey? Challenges for women’s organizations

ABSTRACT This article is an endeavour to explore the changing networking strategies of women’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Turkey over the last decade. We delineate the shifts and changes during what we call the de-democratization process where secular women’s organizations face significant constraints and difficulties while networking and lobbying the government. Under these constrained conditions, yet, secular women’s organizations make an exceptional effort to sustaining their lobbying activities and changing their networking strategies as well as partners. Relying on the related literature and 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with activist members of these organizations with about a 15-year time difference, this paper contends that Turkish women’s organizations under the New Turkey are forced to find alternative allies and adjust their velvet triangles of support. Though their strategies were similar in some ways, the type of partnerships formed and who these partners are changed from the first and second decade of the 2000s. Thus, the paper shows how the secular women’s organizations adapt to new resources as they mobilize and how they shift away from employing the single target approach to double while changing their initial networking and collaboration partners.

Secular and religious coping strategiesin women: the age-related aspect

This article highlights the research fi ndings of the peculiarities of using secular and re-ligious coping strategies by women of different age groups (from age 19 to 70). Focusing on describing age dynamics in coping strategies, it shows that the tendency to use one or other methods of coping with diffi culties is age-related. The research revealed the differences with regard to the object of control in problematic situations and resource origin between two age groups: early and late adulthood. Additionally, it is assumed that women’s subjec-tive resource of overcoming diffi culties includes emotional self-control, while their objective resource--educational level and employment.

The phenomenon of the conciliar reform of the rites of the consecration of virgins

Fenomen soborowej reformy obrzedow konsekracji dziewic Malo znany jest fakt, ze w Kościele istnieje konsekracja kobiet świeckich, czyli specjalny obrzed liturgiczny, podczas ktorego kobieta sklada przyrzeczenie, ze bedzie zyla w dozgonnej czystości dla Krolestwa Bozego. W zamyśle Kościola obrzed ten przeznaczony jest przede wszystkim dla kobiet niezrzeszonych w zadnych Instytutach ani wspolnotach, ale zyjących indywidualnie i prowadzących świecki tryb zycia. Warunkiem dopuszczenia do tego obrzedu przez biskupa jest to, ze kobieta nie zawarla malzenstwa ani nie zyla w stanie przeciwnym czystości. W dopuszczeniu do konsekracji dziewic świeckich, pozostających w świecie i wykonujących swoje prace zawodowe i spoleczne, wyraza sie cala nowośc obecnych obrzedow. Po ośmiu wiekach od czasu zaprzestania praktyki konsekracji dziewic świeckich Kościol, kierowany duchem czasu, wraca do swojej dawnej tradycji i przywraca obrzed konsekracji „ich pierwotnym wlaścicielom”, czyli kobietom świeckim. Mozna odnowione obrzedy konsekracji uznac za szczegolny wyraz szacunku dla kobiety, ktorej godnośc jest niekiedy obrazana przez spolecznośc zdominowaną mitami hedonizmu i konsumpcji. Autor zajmuje sie tozsamością i charakterem diecezjalnym stanu dziewic jako typowym dla tej formy zycia konsekrowanego. Porusza ponadto zagadnienia związane z warunkami dopuszczenia kobiet do konsekracji, zalozeniami teologicznymi obrzedu oraz formą jego sprawowania.

The prospective status of women in israel following a clash between the feminist and religious revolutions in the Israeli army

In the past decade, the Israeli Army (IDF) has been undergoing simultane-ously two ‘social revolutions’: a ‘feminist revolution’ and a “religious revolution”. The two revolutions have different and conflicting ideologies causing a clash of values. Feminist values demand the integration of women in the army without gender separation, whereas religious principles require modesty and gender separation. At the moment, in practice, religious values which under-mine women’s equal opportunities in the army outweigh democratic values. If the secular women and men in Israeli society will not act to deprive the IDF of its unofficial and unauthorized role of balancing conflicting values in society, the status and roles of women in the army will be downgraded, directly im-pacting gender inequality in the employment market.

Contestations of Feminism, Secularism and Religion in the West: The Discursive Othering of Religious and Secular Women

Secular and religious women have a history of fighting for women’s rights and gender equality. Yet, contemporary feminist and women’s movements in the West are largely understood as secular, and as rejecting religion, and religion is often perceived as the antithesis of empowerment and emancipation. In this article I problematise the relationship between feminism, secularism and religion via a discussion of secular feminist views on women and religion, and religious women’s views on secular feminism. Bringing together previously separate strands of work, this article provides an original analysis of how both secular feminist women and non-feminist religious women engage in discursive articulations of Othering, constructing inferior subjects who are (dis-)placed outside the boundary of ‘women like us’. Such discursive representations, which are rooted in perceptions of feminism and religion as unitary and static, contribute to the construction and maintenance of sharp boundaries between secular and religious women, thus hindering the potential for dialogue and collaboration in support of women’s rights and gender equality.

Działalność polskich doradczyń życia rodzinnego w Kościele katolickim w kontekście formowania się praw kobiet świeckich we wczesnym chrześcijaństwie

The problem raised in this article revolves around the relationship between the activity of contemporary advisers with women’s rights in the early Christianity? The article provides a new perspective on the theory of activity of Polish Catholic family life counsellors. It presents an overview of the history and character of those advisers’ activity as well as the origin of secular women’s rights in the early Christianity (including the reasons for their gradual restriction). The article finishes with conclusions from the conducted research addressed to Catholic advisers dealing with the issues associated with family life in Poland.

Conduct Becoming: Good Wives and Husbands in the Later Middle Ages by Glen Burger

Reviewed by: Conduct Becoming: Good Wives and Husbands in the Later Middle Ages by Glen Burger Nicole Sidhu glen burger, Conduct Becoming: Good Wives and Husbands in the Later Middle Ages. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Pp. 272. isbn: 978–0–8122–4960–6. $65. The study of wifely virtue, its role in the home and in the broader sociopolitical imaginary, is a standby of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century studies. Medievalists pay far less attention to the 'good wife,' in part because medieval gender politics has seemed to many to be rooted in a misogynist disgust for female reproduction that allowed only nuns and virgin maidens to attain exemplary female virtue. Medievalists have also long been aware that their period sees significant transformations in notions of marriage—most notably the emergence of affection, mutual companionship, and sexual fulfillment as marital ideals that came to equal the traditional values of economic and familial alliance. And yet, while historians have examined the economics that undergirded this new vision of marriage, the deeper cultural transformations that enabled and nurtured it have thus far remained a mystery. Enter Glenn Burger, with a pioneering and intellectually ambitious new study that seeks to fill these gaps in our intellectual and cultural history. Burger's subject is conduct literature for women, but rather than analyzing it as a prescription for gendered norms of behavior, he characterizes conduct literature as part of a broader cultural movement that changed gender relations. Becoming Conduct provides a timely revision to medieval conduct studies (a field just now reaching conceptual middle age and due for a reboot) by redefining conduct literature. Instead of examining the traditional manuals of behavior that have thus far been the field's focus, Burger expands the definition of 'conduct' to include a much broader swath of texts aimed at instructing women. For Burger, conduct literature is not just about formulating normative modes of gender behavior but is part of larger social and cultural transformation that sees ideals of virtue, and the cultural authority associated with them, expanding from the clergy to the laity. Integral to this movement is an emerging notion of ethical subject-hood for both lay men and women that is constructed out of their marital roles as a 'good husband' and 'good wife.' Examining a range of texts focused on women's conduct, Burger notes the emergence of a focus on ideals relating to women as wives, rather than aristocratic lovers (according to the tradition of fin amors) or female religious (the focus of instructional texts like Ancrene Wisse). Fueled by a new emphasis on marriage as a sacrament by Church authorities, conduct manuals of the 'long fourteenth century' present a new ideal that foregrounds a wife's virtuous conduct and its ability to alter marital and social relations. By rooting their ideals in married virtue, these texts [End Page 115] diverge from earlier medieval traditions in allowing the good wife to, for the first time, equal the virgin nun in her potential as an ethical subject. The emerging ideal of 'the good wife,' Burger proposes, has far-reaching consequences, including a concomitant new ideal of 'the good husband' for men and a new model of social relations that makes household relations a fitting metaphor for relations of ruler to the ruled. Chapter One examines the Journées Chrétiennes—works that provided guidelines to spiritually ambitious secular women on how to emulate the devotional discipline of monks and nuns. These texts adjusted monastic practice to the busy life in the home to allow the wife to claim spiritual virtue within the confines of married life. In doing so, they positioned the wife as a subject with ethical potential. Chapter Two turns to texts more commonly recognized as conduct literature. Focused on the behavior of women in the secular world, these works include Louis IX's Les Enseignements de Saint Louis à sa fille Isabelle, Durand de Champagne's Speculum dominarum, and the Livre du chevalier de la Tour Landry. Here, Burger considers how the texts move away from the idea of woman as irretrievably fallen or wayward (common in clerical writings on women) to imagine woman's nature as...

Exploring body image, strength of faith, and media exposure among three denominations of Jewish women

Body image dissatisfaction has been associated with harmful effects on the psychological well-being of women in western societies. Religion has been suggested to be a protective factor against body image dissatisfaction, though its precise mechanisms are not fully understood. Thus, the present study investigated the relationship between religious denominations and body image, both positive and negative. Further, it examined strength of religious faith, media exposure, and modesty, as possible mediating factors underlying this relationship. Participants were 483 Jewish women belonging to ultra-Orthodox, modern-Orthodox, or to a secular population. All factors were measured by self-report questionnaires. Findings revealed that compared to secular Jewish women, ultra-Orthodox Jewish women maintain more positive attitudes regarding their bodies, and suffer less from body image dissatisfaction. Importantly, positive and negative body image had unique effects: Positive body image differed between the Ultra-Orthodox group and the other two groups, and this relationship was fully mediated both by media exposure and by strength of religious faith. For negative body image, secular women differed from the two other groups, and this relationship was fully mediated only by media exposure. These findings are discussed in light of sociocultural influences, and related clinical implications.

Differences Between Religious and Secular Women Students in Judging Processes

Abstract This study examined the differences between religious and secular women in the process of judging a dramatic, complex event from a structural viewpoint, both multidimensional (large number of causes and effects, causes in different categories, large number of actors) and one-dimensional. The event was the evacuation of the Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip, which took place in Israel in 2005. The participants were 244 Jewish women students, self-defined as religious or secular, who reported negative emotions in relation to the evacuation. Despite differences between the religious and secular women in the content and intensity of the emotions aroused, differences were not found in the pattern of connections (i.e. the structure) between the variables in the model. That is to say, the difference in the respondents’ political or religious tendencies did not affect their judgment structures. We also found that a multidimensional perception of the event will tone down the severity of the judgment, regardless of the judge’s views regarding the content of the event.

Dancing at Both Weddings

A new feminist movement is on the rise in Israel. It is led by haredi (ultra-Orthodox) women, usually known for their silent acquiescence to the rabbinate. They are not looking to create a revolution, but their activism may have implications not only for women, but for Israel in general. Based on interviews with haredi activists, Knesset (Parliament) members, secular and religious women heads of ngos, and academics, we contend that political activism, especially for haredi women with little education, experience, and resources, is not ironic, but rather, an appropriate vehicle for advancing their agenda. Other avenues of activity are closed for haredi women. Politics, which is assimilated into the category of “secular” activities, is likely to generate less opposition from their community. Haredi women and the state of Israel are trying to dance at two different weddings: at one, the tune being played is that of women’s rights and democracy; at the other, it is Jewish law, with its religious patriarchy.

Asian Women in the Ecumenical Movement: Voices of Resistance and Hope

AbstractThroughout Asian ecumenical history, Christian women have found ways to organize themselves and create structures that give them the space to articulate their concerns and contribute their theological and leadership skills to the church and society. Asia's complex context has played a pivotal role in framing the contributions of women to the ecumenical movement, while the ecumenical movement in Asia has played a key role in helping define feminism, feminist theory, and feminist theology for this continent, contributing to national‐level initiatives in each Asian country as well as to regional and to World Christianity. At the same time, ecumenical women in each nation of Asia have linked with secular women's efforts and with women of other faiths to bring transformation in the lives of women, to challenge violence in all its manifestations, and to demand justice and dignity for all women and men.

Identities, Communities and Belonging: The Effects of Violence and Trauma on Jewish Women

This paper helps to explain why sensitivity to cultural context matters in terms of violence and trauma such as sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape, spousal abuse, assault, and / or surviving the Holocaust. My interest in this paper was stimulated through my volunteer work at a Family Service Centre for Jewish women in Ottawa called Shalom Bayit. This particular volunteer experience helped me to understand that cultural location determines how people express a violating and harmful experience and the type of support they receive. This paper will explore different cultural locations as well as agency to civil, criminal and religious law. Women’s agency plays a role in how Jewish women’s experiences are voiced and validated by their surrounding community. The following research has implications for professionals working with violated and traumatized women. This paper will be using a comparative method researching Jewish women with different identities. Examples of identities to be examined are Secular, Orthodox, Israeli, Lesbian, and Sephardi Jewish women.

When Fairness Clashes with Personal Autonomy and Parental Authority: A Comparison of Daughters' and Mothers' Reasoning in Two Cultural Contexts in Turkey

ABSTRACTThe author examined religious and secular daughters' and mothers' reasoning about personal autonomy, maternal authority, and moral concepts in family decision-making situations in urban Turkey. Sixty-eight daughters and 34 mothers were individually interviewed about decision-making autonomy in general issues and hypothetical daughter–mother conflicts. Results indicated participants regardless of their family status and religious background assigned more decision-making autonomy to mothers when evaluating general issues. Analysis of controversial issues as hypothetical conflicts indicated that daughters and mothers do not hold unitary social judgments about the social world that were always consistent with the norms of their community and family status. There were some religious background differences in evaluations of some conflict stories as a function of whether they evaluated the choices as moral, conventional, personal, and prudential matters. Although secular and religious participants conceptualized daughters and mothers in relational terms rather than characterizing the relations and social issues by harmony, obedience to authority, and acceptance of norms findings suggested that secular women evaluated the hypothetical adolescent–mother conflicts more consistently when the issue entails violation of a moral principle such as justice, fairness, and well-being of the other.

Women's Access to Property: A Comparative Study on Islamic and Kemalist Women in Turkey

AbstractThis article uses a comparative approach to discuss women's access to property using evidence collected from field research conducted on two distinct communities of Istanbul: one secular and one Islamic. The two groups of women possess distinctly different views of the world and how it is organized. This is particularly the case concerning gender where secular women put forth a view rooted in the sameness of the genders where the Islamic women were clear in their commitment to the idea of difference. These attitudes toward the equality and difference of the genders structures the relations of these women to property and the process of inheritance.

Exposición de los prototipos femeninos en los Miragres de Santiago. Una primera aproximación

The Miragres de Santiago is one of the most important works in late medieval Galician prose. Dispite of its complex composition, the Christian ideology apparent in this work can be seen as a relevant example of the way of thinking at that time. This essay will try to convey the value of female prototypes by describing, classifying and analysing all references to women. The aim is a first-hand approach to the status of both religious and secular women in the Middle Ages.

Space, Society, and Self

Space, Society, and Self

Moderating Effects of Religiousness and Marriage Duration on the Relation Between Sexual and Marital Satisfaction Among Jewish Women.

This study examined the moderating effects of religiousness and relationship duration on the association between sexual and marital satisfaction. For this purpose, 240 married Jewish women-religious and secular-responded to an online survey. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that religiousness moderated the association between sexual and marital satisfaction which was found to be stronger for secular women than for religious women. Relationship duration also moderated the association between sexual and marital satisfaction which was found to be stronger for longer marital duration than for shorter marital duration. In addition, a significant three-way interaction (religiousness×relationship duration×sexual satisfaction) was also found where the association between the two types of satisfaction was stronger for religious women married for a longer time in comparison with those married for a shorter time. For secular women, relationship duration did not moderate the relation between sexual and marital satisfaction. An explanation based on differences in the manner in which religious and secular women perceive and relate to the sexual aspects of their marital relationship at different stages of the marriage is offered.

Sense of Coherence in Religious Christian Orthodox Women in Greece.

Investigation of correlation between the way of life of women-secular and devoted (belonging to a Christian Orthodox fraternity)-and their stress management skills. Sample population consisted of 200 women, 100 belonging to an Orthodox Christian fraternity and 100 secular women, 18 years of age and older from the wider Thessaloniki area (North Greece). Antonovsky's Scale Sense of Coherence (SOC) was used for stress management skills evaluation. The mean SOC score was 138 (95 % CI 133.9-142.1) for secular and 149.9 (95 % CI 144.9-154.9) for devoted women. The presence of a strong sense of coherence for those women belonging to the fraternity (p = 0.004) and older age (p = 0.019) correlate with higher SOC scores. Religiousness appears to enhance stress management skills in women although additional evidence needs in support of the findings of this research.

Sense of Coherence (SOC) in Christian Orthodox Monks and Nuns in Greece.

This paper aims to investigate the stress management skills of Christian Orthodox monks and nuns, as measured by Antonovsky's scale sense of coherence (SOC). A case-control study was designed to test the hypotheses whether monks and nuns have higher SOC than secular people. The study population consisted of 193 individuals, 96 monks and nuns (study group) and 97 secular men and women (control group). SOC score was higher in monks and nuns as compared to the secular population (p=0.002), men as compared to women (p=0.012) and persons of older age (p=0.004) as compared to younger individuals.

Synagogue and State in the Israeli Military: A Story of “Inappropriate Integration”

Abstract The encounter between synagogue and state in Israel’s military context raises a variety of complex questions that defy conventional paradigms. While religious liberty continues to occupy a special place in most liberal democratic thought, the legal and philosophical literature pondering its various dimensions has largely lost analytic sight of the fascinating intersection of military and religion. This article embarks on analyzing the appropriate integration between loyalty to God and to country, and between religious male and secular female soldiers. Evaluating examples of synagogue-state tensions and accommodationist policies, this article explores the manner and extent to which the Israeli military (IDF) responds to the observant soldier’s multiple identities as a religious minority member and a faithful citizen of the larger secular polity. Against this backdrop, the article analyzes the vexed challenges posed to multicultural theory by the equivocal status of the Orthodox community as a numerical minority but “power majority” within the military, and by the IDF’s unique exercise of multiculturalist protection, termed herein “external restrictions,” imposed on majority group members. It concludes that the ongoing “religionization” of the IDF through the 2002 “Appropriate Integration” regulation has served as a powerful counterforce to gender equality, fostering a growing practice of female exclusion through which women are disenfranchised from core, non-negotiable protections of citizenship. The article identifies as the prime casualty of this aggressive multicultural accommodation not only secular women’s hard-won equality of opportunity, but also the very rights and status of minority women within their own religious community.