Patriarchy as a Religious and Political System
Patriarchy as a Religious and Political System
This collection examines the relationship between patriarchy, religion, and political power across historical and contemporary societies. It explores how religious traditions have both reinforced and challenged systems of male authority, how political institutions have incorporated religious concepts into law and governance, and how feminist scholars, theologians, and activists have sought to reinterpret religious traditions in support of gender equality. The articles span multiple faith traditions, legal systems, historical periods, and political movements, providing a broad comparative overview of the interaction between religion, gender, and power.
General Analyses of Patriarchy, Religion, and Political Power
These articles introduce patriarchy as a social and political system that extends beyond the family into law, economics, education, religion, and government. They examine how religious beliefs, constitutional protections, cultural traditions, and legal institutions have historically reinforced male authority while also discussing modern critiques and efforts to promote gender equality.
Christianity, Churches, and Ecclesiastical Authority
These sources examine patriarchal structures within Christian churches, including debates over women's ordination, biblical interpretation, church leadership, Christian nationalism, evangelical gender ideology, and feminist theology. They also explore how different Christian traditions have responded to changing understandings of gender equality.
Christianity and Biblical Patriarchy
These articles focus specifically on biblical interpretations of gender, complementarianism, evangelical family models, male headship, submission, and debates over scriptural authority. They examine both historical development and contemporary challenges to patriarchal readings of Christianity.
Catholicism and Institutional Male Authority
This section explores the Catholic Church's male-only priesthood, debates over women deacons, feminist critiques of church authority, Vatican policies, historical exclusion of women from leadership, and movements advocating greater participation of women within Catholic institutions.
Islam, Islamic Law, and Muslim Family Systems
These articles examine the relationship between Islamic teachings, Muslim family law, gender equality, guardianship, inheritance, marriage, divorce, and contemporary Islamic feminism. Many distinguish between religious doctrine and patriarchal legal or cultural interpretations while documenting ongoing reform efforts.
Islam, Law, and Male Guardianship
This section concentrates on legal doctrines surrounding qiwamah, wilayah, family law, male authority, and Muslim legal reform. It includes scholarly analyses and advocacy materials addressing efforts to reinterpret religious law in support of greater equality.
Judaism and Jewish Religious Authority
These sources examine women's participation in Jewish religious leadership, the evolution of female rabbis, feminist theology, Orthodox debates, Jewish law, divorce, education, and changing understandings of religious authority within different Jewish traditions.
Hinduism, Hindu Nationalism, and South Asian Gender Systems
These articles examine gender roles within Hindu traditions, inheritance reforms, women's rights, social activism, Hindu nationalism, and the relationship between religion, politics, caste, and patriarchy in South Asia.
Hinduism, Caste, and Religious Nationalism
This section focuses on Brahmanical patriarchy, caste systems, communal politics, Hindutva, nationalist movements, and the interaction between religious identity, women's roles, and political mobilization.
Buddhism and Gender Hierarchy
These sources examine women's ordination, monastic leadership, institutional barriers, feminist reinterpretations of Buddhism, and historical efforts to expand women's religious authority within Buddhist traditions.
Religious Fundamentalism, Nationalism, and Political Control
These articles explore how religious fundamentalist and nationalist movements influence politics, family law, reproductive rights, education, gender norms, and democratic institutions. They also examine resistance movements and international human rights advocacy.
Religion, State Law, and Reproductive Politics
This section investigates the interaction between religion and secular government in areas such as reproductive rights, constitutional law, religious liberty, family policy, and public debates over women's equality.
Family, Social Norms, and Political Representation
These studies examine how religious beliefs influence family structures, parenting, employment, political participation, leadership opportunities, and public attitudes toward gender roles across different societies.
Feminist Theology and Religious Resistance
These articles highlight feminist theologians, women religious leaders, peacebuilding efforts, and theological reinterpretations that seek to challenge patriarchal institutions while working within religious traditions to expand women's leadership and equality.
Patriarchy, Religion, and the State
This section examines how religious institutions interact with governments, political parties, electoral systems, nationalism, democratization, and constitutional law to shape gender relations and women's political participation.
Historical and Theoretical Foundations
These works trace the historical origins of patriarchy from ancient societies through modern political theory. They examine foundational scholarship on gender, religion, kinship, law, property, and the historical development of patriarchal social systems.
Comparative Perspectives
Taken together, the collection compares multiple religious traditions rather than treating any single faith as uniquely patriarchal. It documents both historical systems of male authority and the diverse reform movements, feminist scholarship, legal changes, and theological reinterpretations that have sought to expand women's rights across different cultural and religious contexts.
Conclusion
The articles collectively demonstrate that patriarchy has functioned as both a religious and political system in many societies, shaping institutions ranging from families and churches to courts and governments. At the same time, they show that every major religious tradition contains internal debates, reform movements, and scholars who challenge patriarchal interpretations. Rather than presenting a single narrative, the collection provides a comparative resource for understanding how religion, law, politics, and culture have interacted to both reinforce and contest systems of gender hierarchy throughout history.
General Analyses of Patriarchy, Religion, and Political Power
Constitutional Identity and Patriarchy: The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood as a Constitutional Problem
| Ilenia Ruggiu | European Law Open | 2026
This article examines how constitutional protections for religious identity can perpetuate patriarchal institutions, focusing on rules excluding women from the priesthood.
Dismantling the Patriarchy: The Ongoing Work of Feminist Theology
| Author Not Listed | Feminist Theology | 2026
This article argues that Christianity remains deeply shaped by patriarchy and calls on feminist theology to address its connections with colonialism, racism, and class hierarchy.
Ideologies, Institutions and Power: Addressing Discriminatory Social Norms
This report explains how patriarchal ideologies become embedded in political, religious, legal, and economic institutions and identifies strategies for transforming them.
Patriarchal Family Order in Abrahamic Religions: Women's Position in Marriage and Family
| Author Not Listed | SSRN | 2026
This comparative study considers how interpretations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have constructed male authority within marriage, family life, and religious communities.
The Politics of the Sacred: Women's Rights at the Limits of Political Liberalism
| African Studies Centre Leiden | ASCL | 2026
This discussion examines how liberal protections for religion can conflict with women's equality when religious organizations maintain patriarchal rules and authority structures.
Religion and Women's Equality
| Katherine Marshall | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | 2016
This article considers religion as both a source of patriarchal gender norms and a potential resource for women's empowerment and social reform.
The Legacy of Patriarchy
| Robin Bahliada | JSTOR | 2015
This chapter surveys the influence of patriarchy on leadership, economics, political institutions, legal systems, family structures, and religious traditions.
Ambivalent Sexism and Religion: Connected Through Values
| Michał Mikołajczak and Janina Pietrzak | Sex Roles | 2014
This study investigates how religious values may be associated with hostile and benevolent sexism, including beliefs that idealize women while reinforcing traditional gender hierarchy.
The Role of Patriarchal Religion and Culture in the Subordination of Women
| Gila Stopler | Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy | 2008
This legal analysis argues that protections for religion and culture should not be used to shield practices that perpetuate male dominance and women's subordination.
The Role of Patriarchal Religion and Culture in the Subordination of Women: A Historical and Legal Analysis
This paper traces the historical relationship between patriarchal religion, church authority, state power, and the legal subordination of women.
Christianity, Churches, and Ecclesiastical Authority
Feminizing Patriarchy: Christian Churches and Gender Inequality in Rural Mozambique
| Victor Agadjanian | Sociology of Religion | 2025
This study finds that Christian churches can modify older forms of patriarchal family control while producing new forms of women's dependence within marriage.
How Does White Christian Nationalism Harm Women in the United States?
| Author Not Listed | Review and Expositor | 2025
This article examines how white Christian nationalism reinforces male authority, limits reproductive autonomy, and contributes to systemic political and social harm against women.
Christian Feminist Theological Ethics
| Cristina L. H. Traina | St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology | 2024
This reference article explains how feminist theologians reconstruct Christian ethics by placing women's experiences, bodily autonomy, and social equality at the center of moral analysis.
Christian Feminists from Abroad Confront U.S. Sexual Politics
| Harvard University Researcher | Weatherhead Center for International Affairs | 2024
This article describes Christian feminists who resist hierarchical and patriarchal forms of American evangelicalism exported through religious media, education, and missionary networks.
The Role of Culture, Patriarchy, and Ordination of Women in the Church
| R. J. Kariuki | European Open Science Publishing | 2024
This article analyzes how cultural traditions and patriarchal interpretations of Christianity continue to obstruct women's ordination and leadership.
Not Just Proud Boys: Women Espouse Christian Nationalist Views Too
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | 2023
This analysis shows that women can participate actively in Christian nationalism even when the movement endorses traditional gender hierarchy and male-headed families.
Why Christian Nationalism Is a Feminist Issue
| National Organization for Women | NOW | 2023
This article argues that Christian nationalism threatens women's equality by merging patriarchal theology with campaigns against reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and secular government.
'Feminist Theology,' 'Lived Religion,' and the Investigation of Conservative Religions
| Anne-Marie Korte | DIVE-IN | 2022
This article reviews feminist theology, lived-religion research, and studies of women's agency within conservative and patriarchal religious communities.
Gender Inequality in the Church: Addressing Patriarchy within the Johane Masowe Chishanu Church
| Phillip Musoni | Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae | 2022
This study examines gender inequality in a Zimbabwean-founded church and identifies religious teachings and institutional practices that restrict women's authority.
Christian Patriarchy Is Just Patriarchy
| Miguel De La Torre | Good Faith Media | 2021
This commentary rejects attempts to portray Christian male headship as fundamentally different from other systems of patriarchal domination.
Gender, Bodies, and American Christian Nationalism
| Melissa Roschman | gender forum | 2021
This article connects Christian nationalism with abstinence education, patriarchal control of sexuality, heteronormativity, and gendered political rhetoric.
Looking for Justice for Black Women and Girls: The Black Church, Jezebel, and Aspirational Black Capitalist Patriarchy
| Tamura Lomax | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | 2021
This essay examines how sexism, sexual stereotyping, respectability politics, and male-centered leadership can reproduce patriarchal power within Black churches.
Gender Inequality: Harmful Patriarchal, Traditional, and Cultural Gender Practices in the Church
| Author Not Listed | HTS Teologiese Studies | 2019
This article examines how churches maintain gender inequality through stereotypes, male leadership, cultural traditions, and selective interpretations of scripture.
Is a “Christian America” a More Patriarchal America?
| Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Religion and Politics | 2019
This quantitative study finds that Christian nationalism is a strong predictor of support for traditional gender ideology and male-centered family arrangements.
How Can Feminist Theology Reduce Gender Inequality in India?
| Author Not Listed | Economic and Political Weekly | 2018
This article considers whether feminist reinterpretations of theology can challenge patriarchal religious norms and support broader struggles for gender equality.
The Bible and Women? We Need to Talk
| Eboni Marshall Turman | Yale University Reflections | 2018
This essay discusses biblical interpretation, misogyny, women's leadership, and the intersection of sexism with racism, class inequality, and religious authority.
What Feminist Christians Think about Pope Francis
| Sarah Morice-Brubaker | Time | 2015
Feminist theologians assess Pope Francis's record while criticizing the Catholic Church's continuing exclusion of women from ordained authority.
Women's Religious Authority in a Sub-Saharan Setting
| Victor Agadjanian | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | 2015
This research shows how women religious leaders can challenge male authority while remaining constrained by gendered institutions and expectations.
Christian Fundamentalisms and Women's Rights in the African Context
This case study documents how Christian fundamentalist movements in Africa influence legislation, sexuality, family policy, and women's access to political and religious leadership.
Islam, Islamic Law, and Muslim Family Systems
Analyzing the Position of Muslim Women in Patriarchal Society and Their Choice of Wearing Hijab
| Author Not Listed | ResearchGate | 2026
This study considers Muslim women's clothing choices within patriarchal societies, political debates, religious expectations, and experiences of Islamophobia.
How Does Change Happen? Social Norms, Religion, and Muslim Family Laws in the Middle East and North Africa
| Marwa Sharafeldin | UN Women | 2026
This paper analyzes how religious interpretation, social norms, legal institutions, and political power interact to maintain or transform discriminatory Muslim family laws.
Women’s Rights from Islamic Perspectives: Navigating Equality and Contemporary Challenges
| D. Saifullin and Others | Discover Global Society | 2026
This article discusses women's political, social, familial, and religious rights within Islam while distinguishing Islamic principles from patriarchal cultural practices.
Gender Equality in Islam: Myth or Reality?
| Ayesha Naseem | The Review of Religions | 2025
This article presents a religious defense of women's rights in Islam while responding to claims that Islamic teachings are intrinsically patriarchal.
Islam and the Tradition of Gender
| Author Not Listed | International Journal of Religion | 2024
This article examines how interpretations of Qur'anic verses and hadith can reproduce gender inequality when religious leaders consistently privilege male authority.
Islamic Feminism and Gender Justice: More Relevant than Ever
| Raihanah Abdullah and Syazana Al-Hady | AcademiaSG | 2023
This article explains how Islamic feminists distinguish Islam from patriarchal interpretations and seek equality through religious scholarship and legal reform.
Mapping of Global Muslim Family Laws
| Musawah | Campaign for Justice in Muslim Family Laws | 2022
This comparative resource maps marriage, divorce, guardianship, inheritance, and custody laws that institutionalize or challenge male authority in Muslim-majority jurisdictions.
Men in Charge? A Feminist Reader's Guide to Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition
This guide analyzes qiwamah and wilayah, concepts that have been used to justify husbands' authority and men's guardianship over women and children.
Islam and the Question of Gender Equality
| Ziba Mir-Hosseini | Musawah | 2017
This paper explores the tension between Islamic ideals of justice and historical legal doctrines developed within male-dominated societies.
Islam and Patriarchy—and Why It Is Important to Understand
| Zainah Anwar | Global Citizen | 2015
This article argues against treating Islam as uniformly patriarchal and emphasizes the roles of interpretation, history, politics, and local culture.
Muslim Women Are Fighting to Redefine Islam as a Religion of Equality
| Charlotte Alter | Time | 2015
This article profiles Muslim women who reinterpret scripture, reform family laws, and challenge male monopolies over religious authority.
How to Challenge the Patriarchal Ethics of Muslim Legal Tradition
| Ziba Mir-Hosseini | openDemocracy | 2013
This article explains how classical Islamic jurisprudence constructed gender relations and how contemporary Muslim feminists are developing egalitarian interpretations.
Decoding the “DNA of Patriarchy” in Muslim Family Laws
| Ziba Mir-Hosseini | openDemocracy | 2012
This article examines qiwamah and wilayah as legal concepts that have institutionalized male guardianship and women's subordinate status in family law.
Feminist Voices in Islam: Promise and Potential
| Ziba Mir-Hosseini | openDemocracy | 2012
This essay describes Muslim women's struggle for justice as simultaneously theological and political, challenging both patriarchal religious authority and secular stereotypes.
Towards Gender Equality: Muslim Family Laws and the Shari'ah
| Ziba Mir-Hosseini | Musawah | 2009
This foundational paper argues that Muslim family laws are human legal constructions shaped by historical patriarchal assumptions rather than unchangeable divine rules.
Comparative Perspectives on Women's Religious Authority in Judaism and Islam
| Authors Not Listed | Fondazione per le scienze religiose | n.d.
This article compares strategies through which Jewish and Muslim women contest male hegemony over religious learning, leadership, and legal interpretation.
Gender Equity in Islam
| Jamal A. Badawi | International Islamic University Malaysia | n.d.
This widely cited essay presents an Islamic account of women's spiritual, social, economic, and political rights.
Rethinking Qiwamah and Wilayah
This research project reexamines the theological and legal foundations of male authority and guardianship within Muslim family systems.
Judaism and Jewish Religious Authority
Jewish Feminism in the United States
| Joyce Antler | Jewish Women's Archive | n.d.
This article describes how Jewish feminists challenged male-centered worship, religious law, communal leadership, and representations of God.
Leadership and Authority in Jewish History
| Pamela S. Nadell | Jewish Women's Archive | n.d.
This reference article traces women's exclusion from and participation in Jewish religious, communal, intellectual, and political leadership.
Orthodox Female Clergy Embodying Religious Authority
| Michal Raucher | Association for Jewish Studies | n.d.
This article examines how Orthodox women clergy navigate expectations about gender, dress, embodiment, masculinity, and rabbinic authority.
Orthodox Judaism and Women's Religious Leadership
| Jewish Women's Archive | Jewish Women's Archive | n.d.
This article provides context for debates about women's education, public ritual participation, ordination, and leadership within Orthodox Judaism.
Women and Jewish Religious Authority
| Pamela S. Nadell | Jewish Women's Archive | n.d.
This article reviews women's entry into the rabbinate and their challenge to traditions that reserved formal religious authority for men.
Women in the Rabbinate
| Jewish Women's Archive | Jewish Women's Archive | n.d.
This overview documents the movements, debates, and institutional changes that enabled women to become rabbis in several Jewish denominations.
Hinduism, Hindu Nationalism, and South Asian Gender Systems
Women's Inheritance Rights Reforms and Their Impact on Women's Empowerment in India
| Minali Grover and Ajay Sharma | arXiv | 2025
This study evaluates reforms to Hindu inheritance law and their effects on women's marriage choices, autonomy, household authority, and exposure to violence.
Exploring Gender Dynamics in Hinduism through Activism and Social Change
| E. Chatterjee | Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities | 2024
This article discusses patriarchal traditions in Hindu societies alongside religious resources that women have used for spiritual expression and political activism.
Indian Women Are Being Told Nationalism Will Empower Them—It Is a Trick
| Amrit Wilson | The Guardian | 2024
This commentary argues that Hindu nationalism mobilizes women politically while preserving expectations of obedience, motherhood, purity, and service to male-led communities.
Gender Roles in the Family in India
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | 2022
This report finds widespread support for shared responsibilities alongside strong patriarchal beliefs concerning obedience, inheritance, earning, and caregiving.
How Indians View Gender Roles in Families and Society
This survey examines attitudes toward women leaders, employment, marriage, family authority, son preference, and gender roles across India's religious communities.
Views on Women's Place in Society in India
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | 2022
This analysis compares Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain attitudes toward women's rights and political leadership.
Hinduism and Women: Glimpses from a Feminist Perspective
| Welsh Women's Aid | Welsh Women's Aid | 2020
This article surveys changing gender systems in Hindu societies, including both patriarchal institutions and traditions that recognize women's religious power.
Hinduism as a Political Weapon: Gender Socialization and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism
| Ananya Haldar | University of San Francisco | 2020
This thesis examines how Hindu nationalism connects patriarchal power across religion, electoral politics, education, family life, and gender socialization.
Religious Fundamentalisms and Communalism: The Case of Sahiyar
| Sahiyar Women's Resource Centre | AWID | 2011
This case study examines how Hindu communalism employs patriarchal ideology, women's bodies, family identity, and religious symbolism in nationalist mobilization.
Politics of Diversity: Religious Communities and Multiple Patriarchies
| Kumkum Sangari | Economic and Political Weekly | 1995
This influential essay analyzes how communal politics, personal laws, religious identity, and state policy produce multiple and overlapping forms of patriarchy.
Buddhism and Gender Hierarchy
The Status of Women in Christianity and Buddhism
| Y. Pu | Atlantis Press | 2024
This comparative article evaluates women's religious status and institutional roles within Christianity and Buddhism.
Patriarchy, Gender, and Sexism in Buddhism
| Scott Snibbe and Tenzin Chogkyi | A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment | 2023
This discussion examines monastic hierarchy, women's ordination, gender stereotypes, and sexism within historical and contemporary Buddhist institutions.
Buddhist Women and Religious Leadership
| Karma Lekshe Tsomo | University of San Diego | 2013
This article discusses the obstacles Buddhist women face in gaining ordination, education, recognition, and institutional religious authority.
Buddhism after Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism
| Rita M. Gross | State University of New York Press | 1993
This landmark feminist study recovers women's Buddhist history and reconstructs Buddhist teachings and institutions beyond male-centered assumptions.
Women in Buddhism
| Author Not Listed | Minnesota Zen Meditation Center | n.d.
This overview considers women's historical roles in Buddhist societies and contemporary efforts to expand women's monastic and lay leadership.
Religious Fundamentalism, Nationalism, and Political Control
Christian Nationalism: An Ancient Take on Women's Rights
| Author Not Listed | Greenville County Democratic Party | 2026
This article outlines Christian nationalist positions on male-headed households, marriage, gender identity, and women's participation in public life.
Women Are Just as Likely as Men to Hold Christian Nationalist Views
| Mariel Padilla | The 19th | 2026
This article discusses women's participation in Christian nationalism despite the movement's frequent support for male authority and traditional gender roles.
Engaging Faith-Based and Traditional Actors in Preventing Violence against Women and Girls
| UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women | UN Women | 2025
This report examines how faith-based beliefs can reinforce patriarchy and violence but may also be reinterpreted to support prevention and gender equality.
How Many Tradwives Spread Christian Nationalism
| Tia Levings | Teen Vogue | 2025
This article examines how idealized social-media presentations of domestic submission can normalize patriarchal theology and introduce audiences to Christian nationalist politics.
Online Opposition to Gender Equality
| UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific | UN Women | 2023
This report documents digital narratives and tactics used by anti-feminist and patriarchal movements to resist women's rights and social equality.
Rights at Risk: Time for Action
| Observatory on the Universality of Rights | AWID | 2021
This report tracks religious fundamentalist, nationalist, and anti-rights movements that coordinate campaigns against reproductive freedom and gender equality.
Five Reasons the Special Rapporteur's Work on Cultural Rights Matters for Feminists
This article challenges claims that fundamentalist groups authentically represent religion or culture when they suppress women's participation and diversity.
'The Devil Is in the Details': Development, Women's Rights, and Religious Fundamentalisms
| Srilatha Batliwala | openDemocracy | 2016
This article explains how fundamentalists seek political and social control by regulating women's bodies, sexuality, family roles, and access to public space.
Development, Women's Rights and Religious Fundamentalisms
This article describes religious fundamentalism as a worldwide political force that attacks women's autonomy and restricts human-rights and development work.
Understanding Religious Fundamentalisms for Activists
This activist guide explains how fundamentalist movements organize, claim religious authenticity, influence states, and target women and sexual minorities.
Achieving Rights, Resisting Backlash: Women's Rights and Democratic Transitions
This report shows how religious fundamentalist movements intervene in political transitions to restrict civil society, constitutional equality, and women's freedoms.
Religion, Culture and Tradition: Strengthening Efforts to Eradicate Violence against Women
| Cassandra Balchin | AWID | 2013
This report examines how religious and cultural arguments are used to legitimize gender violence and how activists can challenge patriarchal interpretations.
Towards a Future without Fundamentalisms
| Cassandra Balchin | AWID | 2012
Based on testimony from activists worldwide, this report analyzes fundamentalist strategies and feminist resistance across numerous religious and political settings.
Stones Aimed at Us: An Overview of Discourse and Strategies in Iran's Stop Stoning Forever Campaign
| Stop Stoning Forever Campaign | AWID | 2011
This case study examines the interaction of state religion, patriarchal jurisprudence, judicial authority, and women's-rights activism in Iran.
Religion, State Law, and Reproductive Politics
Religion and Feminism: Is Religion an Obstacle or an Opportunity for Women's Empowerment?
| Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | Georgetown University | 2016
This discussion presents religion as both an institution that can perpetuate patriarchy and a source of feminist organizing and social transformation.
Glimpsing “Adam”: Faith-Based Family Values and Social Change
| Sarah Gammage | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | 2014
This article urges faith communities to reconsider family teachings that reproduce patriarchal assumptions at the expense of freedom, justice, and equality.
Is “Docile Agency” Good for Women?
| Katherine Marshall | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | 2014
This essay considers debates over women's agency within conservative religions and warns against both romanticizing submission and dismissing religious women's choices.
The Supreme Court Ruled in Favor of Patriarchy, Not Democracy
This commentary argues that the Hobby Lobby decision prioritized employers' religious claims over women's reproductive autonomy and equal citizenship.
Feminism and the Soul of Secularism
| Rahila Gupta | openDemocracy | 2011
This essay explores how women from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Christian communities negotiate religious authority, secularism, community identity, and personal autonomy.
Sex, Secularism, and Religious Influence in U.S. Politics
| Elizabeth Bernstein and Janet R. Jakobsen | openDemocracy | 2010
This essay examines how Protestant assumptions influence both religious and secular policymaking concerning sexuality, trafficking, family life, and women's rights.
Spirit, Hope, Money and a Dose of Patriarchy
| Jessica Horn | openDemocracy | 2010
This article analyzes Pentecostal and other fundamentalist campaigns to regulate women's bodily integrity, sexuality, leadership, and political participation.
Family, Social Norms, and Political Representation
Religion and Views on Gender, Parenting, and Workforce Participation
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | 2025
This survey compares religious groups' attitudes toward women's employment, parenting roles, family structure, and gender equality in the United States.
Gender Gains and Gaps in the United States
| Katherine Schaeffer | Pew Research Center | 2024
This report summarizes women's progress and persistent underrepresentation in government, corporate leadership, high-paying occupations, and economic power.
Black Americans' Views of Gender Equality and Gender Roles
| Kiana Cox and Christine Tamir | Pew Research Center | 2023
This survey examines how Black Americans connect support for gender equality with religious, spiritual, and moral beliefs.
Wide Partisan Gaps over Progress on Gender Equality
| Kim Parker, Juliana Menasce Horowitz and Renee Stepler | Pew Research Center | 2017
This study documents political divisions over women's equality and perceptions of whether American institutions continue to privilege men.
The Gender Gap in Religion around the World
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | 2016
This international study examines differences in men's and women's religious affiliation, practice, belief, and participation.
Theories Explaining Gender Differences in Religion
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | 2016
This article reviews biological, socialization, labor-force, family-role, and power-based explanations for gender differences in religious participation.
Archaic Gender Roles in Tanzania
This article connects patriarchal gender roles with unequal education, political participation, economic opportunity, religious teaching, and legal awareness.
Religion and Traditional Values Complicate Gender Roles in Senegal
| Laura Seay | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | 2011
This article discusses how Islam, local traditions, colonial history, and political institutions have shaped gender hierarchy in Senegal.
Feminist Theology and Religious Resistance
A Discussion with Denise Ackermann
| Denise Ackermann and Berkley Center | Georgetown University | 2026
This interview discusses feminist theology in relation to apartheid, ecclesiastical patriarchy, gender violence, political liberation, and economic inequality.
Gender Equality in East and Southern Africa
This policy brief examines the interaction of patriarchy, colonial legacies, militarization, religious norms, and economic inequality in African gender systems.
Women and Religion at Peace Tables: Towards Thriving Communities
| Katherine Marshall | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | 2025
This article highlights the underrepresentation of religious women in peace negotiations and argues for greater recognition of their political leadership.
Impact of Militarization on Gender Inequality
This paper examines feminist arguments that militarism grows from patriarchal models of masculinity, hierarchy, coercion, and state power.
Further Resources on Women's Rights in Muslim Family Laws
This collection provides articles, reports, legal materials, and advocacy resources for challenging gender discrimination justified through Islamic family law.
Gender and Theology
| Author Not Listed | A Level Philosophy and Religion | 2021
This educational overview introduces feminist critiques of male images of God, patriarchal scripture, church hierarchy, and traditional gender roles.
The Agenda of Creating a Planet 50-50 Cannot Come True without Religion
| Lakshmi Puri | UN Women | 2017
This speech argues that religious institutions must confront doctrines and social norms that portray men as naturally superior to women.
Towards Planet 50-50 by 2030
This report calls for feminist engagement with religious traditions and teachings that either sustain patriarchal arrangements or promote women's equality.
Feminist Theology as Critique and Renewal of Theology
| Authors Not Listed | Themelios | n.d.
This article surveys feminist theology's critique of patriarchy while presenting a conservative evangelical assessment of its claims and methods.
More than Footnotes: Women in Early Church History
| The Junia Project | The Junia Project | n.d.
This article recovers women who served as patrons, evangelists, teachers, and house-church leaders before later church institutions marginalized their authority.
Sharing the Musawah Framework and Key Messages
| Musawah | Campaign for Justice in Muslim Family Laws | n.d.
This advocacy toolkit presents religious, human-rights, constitutional, and lived-reality arguments for replacing patriarchal family laws with equality and justice.
Patriarchy, Religion, and the State
Beyond the Binary: Why Nuanced Gender-Backlash Analysis Matters
| Zeynep Kaya | Third World Quarterly | 2026
This article examines contemporary gender backlash as an intensified patriarchal reaction connected to authoritarianism, nationalism, and religious conservatism.
Religion, Culture, and the Politics of Gender: A Feminist Analysis of the Swat Valley
| F. S. Khan | Gender and Education | 2026
This study analyzes how religious authority, customary culture, and political power combine to restrict women's choices in Pakistan's Swat Valley.
The Political Mobilisation of Religion and Gender in Times of Polarisation
| Alberta Giorgi | Religion, State and Society | 2024
This introduction examines how political actors mobilize religion, gender, and sexuality during periods of democratic conflict and ideological polarization.
Voting against Women: Political Patriarchy, Islam, and Representation in Indonesia
| Authors Not Listed | Politics & Gender | 2023
This article investigates how patriarchal political institutions and religious attitudes influence voter resistance to women candidates in Indonesia.
Religion and Gender: A Survey
| Sascha O. Becker and Others | Journal of Demographic Economics | 2021
This survey reviews research on how religion affects gender norms, education, employment, fertility, health, law, and economic inequality.
Religion, Patriarchy and the Prospect for Gender Equality in South Africa
| Dorcas T. Maponya | Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa | 2021
This article argues that patriarchal religious institutions reproduce gender inequality in families, communities, workplaces, and political life.
A Path out of Patriarchy? Political Agency and the Social Identity of Women Fighters
| Güneş Murat Tezcür | Perspectives on Politics | 2020
This article explores whether women's participation in armed political movements challenges patriarchal structures or reproduces gendered inequalities.
Religious Power, the State, Women's Rights, and Family Law
| Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldon | Politics & Gender | 2015
This comparative study links the political institutionalization of religious authority with unequal marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance laws.
Liberal Democracy and the Problem of Patriarchy
| David A. J. Richards | Israel Law Review | 2013
This article traces the religious regulation of sexuality and explains why patriarchal gender hierarchy conflicts with liberal constitutional equality.
The False Choice between Universalism and Religion-Culture
| Meghana Nayak | Politics & Gender | 2013
This article rejects the idea that feminists must choose between universal women's rights and respect for religious or cultural communities.
Historical and Theoretical Foundations
Introduction to Women’s Rights in Liberal States
| Gila Stopler | Cambridge University Press | 2025
This introduction argues that patriarchy remains embedded in religion, populism, and liberal institutions despite formal commitments to equality.
The Five Facets of Religion-State Relations and Their Effects on Women's Rights
| Gila Stopler | Cambridge University Press | 2025
This chapter identifies five ways that state support, legal protection, education, and political access allow patriarchal religions to influence women's rights.
The Historical and Societal Roots of Patriarchy
| Gila Stopler | Cambridge University Press | 2025
This chapter explains how religion, culture, family organization, and state power historically established and preserved patriarchal authority.
The Theoretical Roots of Discrimination against Women in Liberal States
| Gila Stopler | Cambridge University Press | 2025
This chapter argues that liberal theory often overlooks power exercised through religion, culture, marriage, and supposedly private family relationships.
The Political Limits of Patriarchy: Women's Rights in Early Representative Institutions
| Chloe L. Tudor | Perspectives on Politics | 2024
This historical study shows that some women exercised political rights in early representative institutions despite dominant patriarchal assumptions.
Introduction to Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
| Guy D. Middleton | Cambridge University Press | 2023
This chapter introduces the religious, legal, economic, and reproductive structures that sustained patriarchy in ancient Mediterranean societies.
Patriarchy, Inequality, and the Political Lives of Rural Indian Women
| Soledad Artiz Prillaman | Cambridge University Press | 2023
This chapter explains how household control, gender violence, caste, and community norms limit women's political participation in rural India.
Gender and Power
| Graciela Hierro | Hypatia | 1994
This philosophical article defines patriarchy through the interconnected authority of the father, the social master, and the divine eternal father.
The Creation of Patriarchy
| Gerda Lerner | Oxford University Press | 1986
This foundational historical work argues that patriarchy developed gradually through control of women's sexuality, labor, reproduction, and religious representation.
The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex
| Gayle Rubin | Toward an Anthropology of Women | 1975
This influential essay explains how kinship, marriage exchange, religion, and economic organization transform biological sex into systems of male dominance.
Christianity and Biblical Patriarchy
Pentecostalism, Gender and Leadership Roles in West Africa
| Francis C. Adadey | Journal of African Christian Thought | 2026
This article examines how Pentecostal women negotiate leadership opportunities within churches that formally or informally privilege male authority.
The Making of Biblical Womanhood
| Beth Allison Barr | Brazos Press | 2021
This historical analysis argues that evangelical gender hierarchy arose from changing cultural and political circumstances rather than an unbroken biblical tradition.
Jesus and John Wayne
| Kristin Kobes Du Mez | Liveright | 2020
This book traces how white evangelicalism connected masculine authority, militarism, nationalism, and opposition to feminism in American politics.
Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
| Aimee Byrd | Zondervan | 2020
This work criticizes evangelical systems that define men and women through rigid hierarchy rather than shared Christian discipleship.
The Headship of Men and the Abuse of Women
| Kevin Giles | Christians for Biblical Equality | 2020
This article considers how doctrines of permanent male headship may normalize control, inequality, and abuse within Christian families.
How Complementarianism Became Part of the Evangelical Gender Culture
| Anneke Stasson | Religion & Politics | 2019
This article traces the emergence of complementarianism as a modern religious and political defense of male authority.
Women and Worship at Corinth
| Lucy Peppiatt | Christians for Biblical Equality | 2019
This article challenges interpretations of Paul's writings that are frequently used to silence women in Christian worship and leadership.
The Evangelical Gender War
| Kristin Kobes Du Mez | Religion & Politics | 2018
This article examines evangelical disputes over masculinity, femininity, political leadership, and the subordination of women.
Christian Patriarchy and the Quiverfull Movement
| Kathryn Joyce | Beacon Press | 2009
This study investigates a Christian movement that promotes male household authority, female submission, homeschooling, and unrestricted childbearing.
Women, Men, and the Bible
| Mary J. Evans | Christians for Biblical Equality | 2009
This article reviews biblical arguments concerning women's ministry and challenges readings that make female subordination a universal divine command.
Evangelical Women and the Negotiation of Patriarchy in South Korea
| Kelly H. Chong | University of Washington Press | 2008
This study examines how evangelical women seek community and personal agency while participating in churches that affirm patriarchal family structures.
The Evangelical Family and the Politics of Gender
| Sally K. Gallagher | University of California Press | 2003
This work explores how evangelical couples negotiate religious ideals of male headship, motherhood, employment, and household decision-making.
The Power of Submission: Women and the Southern Baptist Convention
| Elizabeth H. Flowers | Baptist History and Heritage | 2001
This article examines how Southern Baptist teachings about submission became connected to institutional struggles over women's ordination and political power.
The Rise and Fall of Biblical Patriarchy
| William J. Webb | Christians for Biblical Equality | 2001
This article examines the historical and interpretive foundations of Christian claims that God permanently established male rule.
Religion and the Construction of Masculinity
| Stephen B. Boyd | Journal of Men's Studies | 1995
This article explores how Christian religious ideals construct masculine authority and reinforce gendered divisions of social power.
Catholicism and Institutional Male Authority
Women Deacons and the Catholic Church
| FutureChurch | FutureChurch | 2025
This resource presents historical and theological evidence concerning women deacons and campaigns to restore women's ordained ministry.
The Catholic Church's Gender Trouble
| Tina Beattie | Commonweal | 2023
This article examines how Catholic teachings about sex, embodiment, and priesthood sustain an exclusively male hierarchy.
Why Women Cannot Be Priests—or Can They?
| National Catholic Reporter Contributor | National Catholic Reporter | 2022
This article reviews theological and historical arguments surrounding the Catholic prohibition against ordaining women.
The Vatican's War on Women
| Mary E. Hunt | Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion | 2012
This analysis critiques Catholic institutional efforts to control women's religious leadership, sexuality, and reproductive autonomy.
Women Religious and the Vatican Investigation
| National Catholic Reporter Staff | National Catholic Reporter | 2012
This article describes Vatican scrutiny of American women religious and conflicts over obedience, feminism, and church authority.
Women-Church: Convergence and Countermovement
| Mary E. Hunt | Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion | 1990
This article examines feminist Catholic communities that create alternative forms of worship and authority outside the institutional hierarchy.
Women and Authority in the Catholic Church
| Rosemary Radford Ruether | CrossCurrents | 1980
This article analyzes the historical exclusion of women from sacramental authority and decision-making in Catholic institutions.
Patriarchy and Property in the Medieval Church
| Jo Ann McNamara | American Historical Review | 1976
This historical analysis examines how ecclesiastical celibacy and church property systems altered relations between male clerics, women, and families.
The Church and the Second Sex
| Mary Daly | Beacon Press | 1968
This classic feminist theological work argues that Catholic doctrine and institutional structures have legitimized women's subordination.
The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church
| Women's Ordination Conference | Women's Ordination Conference | n.d.
This collection documents theological arguments and political campaigns challenging the Catholic Church's male-only priesthood.
Islam, Law, and Male Guardianship
Making Justice Systems Just
This brief explains how feminist reinterpretations of religious law can challenge patriarchal assumptions embedded in formal and informal justice systems.
Thematic Report on Family Law and Muslim Women's Rights in Bahrain
This report documents discriminatory marriage, divorce, custody, and guardianship provisions affecting women in Bahrain.
Muslim Family Law Reform: Towards Gender Equality
This resource collection presents legal, theological, constitutional, and human-rights arguments for reforming patriarchal Muslim family laws.
The Gendered Nature of Islamic Family Law
This resource explains how classical jurists institutionalized assumptions of male superiority through family law doctrines.
Musawah Vision for the Family
This publication proposes Muslim family relationships based on equality, justice, care, consultation, and shared responsibility rather than male control.
Women's Stories, Women's Lives: Male Authority in Muslim Contexts
This report documents how women experience and resist male authority throughout childhood, marriage, divorce, and family life.
Patriarchy versus Islam: Gender and Religion in Economic Growth
| Elissa Braunstein and Mimi Houston | Feminist Economics | 2015
This article questions the use of Islam as a proxy for patriarchal attitudes in comparative research on gender and economic development.
Gender and Equality in Muslim Family Law
| Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen and Christian Moe | I.B. Tauris | 2013
This collection examines religious, legal, and political movements seeking equality within Muslim family systems.
Understanding Islamic Feminism
| Margot Badran | Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion | 2012
This article explains how Islamic feminists use Qur'anic interpretation to contest male monopolies over religious knowledge and legal authority.
Gender and the Islamic Family
| Lynn Welchman | Edinburgh University Press | 2007
This study analyzes the legal construction of husbands as heads of households and wives as dependent or obedient family members.
Islamic Family Law and Social Practice
| John L. Esposito and Natana J. DeLong-Bas | Syracuse University Press | 2001
This work compares how states and communities interpret Islamic rules governing marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody, and male authority.
Marriage on Trial: Islamic Family Law in Iran and Morocco
| Ziba Mir-Hosseini | I.B. Tauris | 1993
This comparative ethnography shows how women negotiate patriarchal religious law in courts, households, and disputes over divorce.
Judaism and Rabbinic Authority
Jewish Feminist Theology
| Judith Plaskow | Jewish Women's Archive | 2021
This overview describes feminist critiques of male images of God, androcentric scripture, and women's exclusion from religious authority.
Orthodox Women and the Politics of Religious Knowledge
| Jewish Women's Archive | Jewish Women's Archive | 2021
This article examines how expanded religious education has enabled Orthodox women to challenge male monopolies over Jewish learning.
The Agunah and Jewish Divorce Law
| Susan Aranoff | Jewish Women's Archive | 2021
This article explains how a husband's power to withhold a religious divorce can trap women in unwanted marriages.
Women and Jewish Law
| Rachel Biale | Jewish Women's Archive | 2021
This reference article surveys gender distinctions in Jewish marriage, divorce, ritual observance, testimony, and communal leadership.
Standing Again at Sinai
| Judith Plaskow | HarperSanFrancisco | 1990
This foundational work argues that Judaism must reconstruct theology, scripture, and communal practice from women's experiences.
Women and Jewish Law: The Essential Texts, Their History, and Their Relevance for Today
| Rachel Biale | Schocken Books | 1984
This work examines how rabbinic rules concerning marriage, divorce, sexuality, and worship created unequal religious status for women.
The Status of Women in Jewish Tradition
| Judith Hauptman | Conservative Judaism | 1977
This article considers the historical development of women's legal and ritual status in rabbinic Judaism.
Women and Prayer in Jewish Law
| Joel B. Wolowelsky | Tradition | 1975
This article examines religious-law debates over women's participation in communal prayer and public ritual.
The Male God and Jewish Patriarchy
| Rita M. Gross | Journal of the American Academy of Religion | 1974
This article explores how exclusively masculine representations of God can reinforce male-centered religious and social structures.
Hinduism, Caste, and Religious Nationalism
The Anti-Feminist Narrative of the Hindu Right in India
| Authors Not Listed | Edinburgh University Press | 2023
This chapter examines how Hindu nationalist organizations oppose feminism while presenting women as guardians of family, religion, and national culture.
Hindu Nationalism and the Gendered Politics of Citizenship
| Author Not Listed | Contemporary South Asia | 2021
This article analyzes how Hindu nationalism defines ideal citizenship through patriarchal expectations concerning motherhood, sexuality, and religious identity.
Gendering Caste through a Feminist Lens
| Uma Chakravarti | Stree | 2003
This work explains how caste reproduction depends on controlling women's marriage, sexuality, labor, and religious conformity.
Gender, Nation, and the Hindu Right
| Tanika Sarkar and Urvashi Butalia | Economic and Political Weekly | 1995
This collection examines how Hindu nationalist politics mobilizes women while preserving male control over family and community life.
Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India
| Uma Chakravarti | Economic and Political Weekly | 1993
This influential article describes how caste hierarchy and patriarchy operate together through religious regulation of women's sexuality and reproduction.
Heroic Women, Mother Goddesses: Family and Organization in Hindutva Politics
| Tanika Sarkar | Economic and Political Weekly | 1991
This article explores the contradiction between powerful female religious symbols and women's subordinate position in Hindu nationalist organizations.
The Woman as Communal Subject
| Tanika Sarkar | Economic and Political Weekly | 1991
This article examines how women's sexuality and domestic behavior become symbols of religious community boundaries and political honor.
Whatever Happened to the Vedic Dasi?
| Uma Chakravarti | Economic and Political Weekly | 1985
This article examines class, gender, servitude, and women's status in ancient Indian religious and social systems.
Women, Religion and Social Change in India
| Geraldine Forbes | Asian Survey | 1981
This article considers how religious reform movements opened new public roles for women while retaining patriarchal assumptions.
The Position of Women in Hindu Civilization
| A. S. Altekar | Motilal Banarsidass | 1956
This historical work surveys women's status in Hindu marriage, property, education, religion, and public life across different periods.
Buddhist Institutions and Women's Ordination
The Buddhist Nuns' Ordination Controversy
| Karma Lekshe Tsomo | State University of New York Press | 2021
This work examines debates over restoring full ordination to women in Buddhist traditions with exclusively male monastic lineages.
Women, Ordination, and Buddhist Authority
| Karma Lekshe Tsomo | Lion's Roar | 2019
This article argues that denying women full ordination perpetuates institutional inequality and limits their religious education and authority.
The Revival of the Bhikkhuni Order and the Decline of the Sasana
| Bhikkhu Analayo | Buddhistdoor Global | 2018
This article challenges claims that women's ordination threatens Buddhism and examines historical arguments used to preserve male monastic control.
Gender Discrimination and the Pali Canon
| Bhikkhu Analayo | Journal of Buddhist Ethics | 2014
This article critically evaluates passages used to justify women's inferior institutional status in Theravada Buddhism.
Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha
| Kathryn R. Blackstone | Routledge | 2013
This work recovers the experiences and religious aspirations of early Buddhist women preserved in canonical literature.
Buddhist Women across Cultures
| Karma Lekshe Tsomo | State University of New York Press | 1999
This collection compares women's religious practices, leadership, and institutional limitations across diverse Buddhist societies.
Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender
| José Ignacio Cabezón | State University of New York Press | 1992
This collection examines how Buddhist texts and institutions construct gender, sexuality, monastic authority, and social hierarchy.
Women under Primitive Buddhism
| I. B. Horner | Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society | 1930
This historical study examines women's participation in early Buddhist communities and the rules governing female monastics.
Religious Nationalism and Gender Backlash
Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing against Equality
| Eszter Kováts and Maari Põim | Friedrich Ebert Foundation | 2015
This report examines religious and conservative movements that organize against feminism, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ equality.
Gender as Symbolic Glue
| Eszter Kováts and Maari Põim | Friedrich Ebert Foundation | 2015
This collection explains how opposition to so-called gender ideology unites religious institutions, nationalist parties, and populist movements.
The Vatican and the Politics of Gender
| Doris E. Buss | Social & Legal Studies | 2004
This article analyzes Vatican influence in international debates over reproductive rights, family policy, sexuality, and women's equality.
Globalizing Family Values
| Doris E. Buss and Didi Herman | University of Minnesota Press | 2003
This study examines transnational alliances among conservative Christians seeking to embed patriarchal family norms in international law.
The Christian Right and the Politics of Gender
| Sara Diamond | Feminist Studies | 1998
This article investigates how Christian-right organizations mobilize opposition to feminism, abortion, sexuality education, and women's political autonomy.
Women, Ethnicity and Nationalism
| Rick Wilford and Robert L. Miller | Routledge | 1998
This collection analyzes women's participation in ethnic and religious nationalist movements that frequently preserve male political leadership.
Gender and Nation
| Nira Yuval-Davis | SAGE Publications | 1997
This work explains how nationalist and religious movements regulate women's reproduction, sexuality, citizenship, and symbolic representation.
Religion, Nationalism, and Gender Politics in Israel
| Nira Yuval-Davis | Feminist Review | 1997
This article explores how religious nationalism assigns women responsibility for biological reproduction and preservation of the national community.
Women and Religious Nationalism
| Valentine M. Moghadam | Journal of Women's History | 1994
This article compares women's roles in movements that combine nationalism, religious revival, and patriarchal political authority.
Feminist Religious Resistance and Reform
A Proposed Typology of Religious Feminist Strategies
| Elisheva Rosman | Politics, Religion & Ideology | 2022
This article categorizes the strategies religious feminists use to reinterpret texts, reform institutions, create alternatives, and challenge exclusion.
The Gendered Politics of the Black Church
| R. Drew Smith | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs | 2021
This article examines women's historic leadership in Black churches alongside continuing male dominance in preaching and institutional authority.
Feminist Theology and the Challenge of Religious Authority
| Pamela Sue Anderson | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | 2018
This reference article surveys feminist critiques of religious knowledge, divine authority, sacred texts, embodiment, and institutional hierarchy.
Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding
| Susan Hayward | United States Institute of Peace | 2015
This report documents women's religious peacebuilding work and the obstacles created by their exclusion from formal religious and political leadership.
Feminism and Religion: How Faiths View Women and Their Rights
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | 2012
This resource surveys debates over women's leadership, family roles, dress, sexuality, and authority in several religious traditions.
The Relevance of Feminist Theology
| Kwok Pui-lan | Feminist Theology | 2011
This article argues that feminist theology must confront colonialism, globalization, religious fundamentalism, and structural inequality.
Feminist Theology from the Third World
| Ursula King | Wipf and Stock | 1994
This collection presents Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist women's critiques of patriarchal religious interpretation.
In Memory of Her
| Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza | Crossroad | 1983
This work reconstructs early Christian history to recover women's leadership and expose the later patriarchal organization of the church.
Sexism and God-Talk
| Rosemary Radford Ruether | Beacon Press | 1983
This foundational feminist theology critiques patriarchal concepts of God, creation, sin, redemption, church authority, and human nature.
Beyond God the Father
| Mary Daly | Beacon Press | 1973
This classic work argues that male-centered concepts of God support political and social systems organized around male supremacy.
