Gender Across Culture Essay

Women have experienced the massive psychological burden of oppressive communal concepts that prevent them from attaining gender equality. The paper presents a discussion supporting the fact that all religions subject women to one form of oppression. Religion is a quest motivated by superior devoutness or the faith of the existence of an extraordinary supreme being that controls entire the universe namely: God or gods. Religious practices play a major role in women oppression in the past and contemporary society. The paper will state a certain mode of oppression and provide justification from various religious practices. The continuous exercise of such religious acts builds a basic foundation for justifying the pervasive and oppressive abuse of women globally. The religious figures such Jesus Christ and Mohammed treated people equally with no traits of discrimination, the followers should abstain hypocrisy and embrace gender equality in religions.

Women have the greater aptitude for achieving success in various fields of the venture but are always subject to chauvinistic male-dominated religious practices that influence nearly all aspects of their lives. The religion interlock women oppression concepts with religious beliefs such as God created gender roles and responsibilities to continuously underpin women adherence to harsh religious practices. Gender inequality is one of the most crucial social problems in Islam communities across the world that haunts both social and public development in Muslim states. The philosophy continues to distinguish the male child from the female child throughout the teaching hence promoting gender segregation. The Confucianism nurtured women as reliant, low-grade, unreceptive and submissive beings (Hays, 2018). The Chinese women represented the economic figure of the family, with no mandate to select the husband, no significant right to divorce or remarry after the death of a husband.

The crude oppressive and pervasive societal atrocities led to an increased rate of women committing suicide. The women in professional and academic sectors have a minimal chance of succeeding this area even when they outsmart the men due to the conventional religious belief of women inferiority. According to Razavi and Jenichen (2010), in the times of fragmentation of anterior Yugoslavia and the concomitant war separation, religious attachment played a decisive role in ethno-national disparity while women bodies were primarily meant for biological subsistence and preservation of ethnic purity which leads to forced pregnancy and rape as a cleansing approach (p. The religious influence on political endeavours in history critically threatened women’s propagative civil rights and impartiality in the society. Rape is an act of forcefulness and supremacy struggle that is undistinguishably correlated to the superlative religious male gender roles and responsibility.

Rape is an overly conforming male act that the religion has consistently taught male aggression and superiority. This is evident in the fact that “God” is automatically assumed to be male in most religions which include Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Religious practices are fundamental contributors to the conceptual framework of purity in the society by regulating the entities that pass in and out of the body orifices. In most religions like Christianity and Islam, uncleanness results in severe consequences that result from diseases or somatic conditions like illnesses or body discharges. Women are always vital subjects when it comes to purity discussion in religion concerning menstruation, childbirth, and virginity. Religion regards to woman’s sexuality as a man possessive pleasure: who regulate and govern its use at each given time.

The Bible refers to uncleanness when describing a woman on menstruation, childbirth, sexual intimacy and women’s bodies. The control of the political aspects of countries creates a clear insight of the massive incorporation of oppressive practices that women encounter on daily basis. One of the fundamental criteria for evaluating the correlation concerning faith and the political affairs is through the legal structural framework (Razavi and Jenichen, 2010, p. The religious practices critically influence the establishment and modification of gender equality policies such as health, education and welfare policies in various countries through most legal channels. The infiltration of religious practices that oppress women establishes exclusive malevolent and difficult challenges that create unquestionable social normalcy that promote women discrimination hence reducing the various socio-economic and political opportunities for women.

Some of the religious beliefs lower the self-esteem of women when living in multi-cultural regions such as the United States. The widely spread female circumcision practices across Africa is partly blamed on religion illiteracy and unawareness that the various religions should actively explore to eradicate the female circumcision oppression. The combination of socio-cultural and religious practices fuel female circumcision motives among various communities in the world, especially in Africa. Religion has continuously encouraged the slavery of women for centuries. A slave is an individual that follows the master’s instructions regardless of how much a directive can be dangerous. Women are treated like children and property in various religions. The Judaism conventional practices depict the husband role as an act of owning the wife like his slave.

The Judaism law provides the husband with the mandate to divorce his wife and not vice versa. The man has full control over the female’s financial earnings since he owns the woman and so whatever she owns is also owned by the husband. The act of marriage in Judaism religion particularly led to financial losses among women. The fundamental aspect that attracted most suitors to propose marriage was the financial stability of the female since they would possess all the wealth right after marriage. 35-70, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 May 2018. BANERJI, R.  India's female genital mutilation: a thousand-year-old secret. [online] openDemocracy. Available at: https://www. [online] Factsanddetails. com. Available at: http://factsanddetails. com/china/cat3/sub9/entry-5562. html [Accessed 9 May 2018].