Religion and gender equality

‘Is it right for religions to treat men and women differently?’

The background for this debate was a recent vote by the General Synod (decision-making body) of the Church of England not to allow women to become bishops, which was met with dismay both within and outside the church. In the Roman Catholic Church women cannot be ordained at all, and leadership roles are reserved for men in many of the other world religions.

The survey we commissioned found that just 8% of the general population and 11% of Anglicans approve of the Church of England’s policies on women. Support for the Roman Catholic Church’s even stricter policies is even lower among the general population at 6% although Catholics are somewhat more approving of their own church at 22%

The majority of people in Britain think that religions would be better if more women held senior positions. If you rely more on God, religious leaders and teachings than you do on your own judgement, then you are much more likely to disapprove of women leaders in religion. Of the 5% among the population who do disapprove of women’s leadership, there are twice as many men as women.

Church leaderships and hierarchy are increasingly adrift from consensus views on gender equality among their own membership and the population at large

Quotes

“I’m a woman and I don’t deny that I am different from a man. But our brains aren’t different and our hearts aren’t different and our souls aren’t different. In every respect that pertains to religion we’re exactly the same. So how can it possibly be right for religions to treat us differently and particularly to treat us worse than men?”

Mary Ann Sieghart

“It’s not politically correct at all to admit it, but I think it’s true to say that most of us experience differences in the way that men and women perceive themselves and the world. It’s not good or bad, but a reality that I think we deny at our peril.”

Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski

“I want to emphasise that in Islam, repeated in the Quran many times, men and women are equal … Where Islamic law treats men and women differently it is in the places where it takes into account their real differences, their biological differences, our psychological differences.”

Fatima Barkatulla

Some media reaction

More Muslims than Anglicans approve of the Church of England’s current policies towards women, a new poll suggests … Professor Linda Woodhead, Director of the Religion and Society Programme at Lancaster University, said that the poll results showed ‘that the Churches are seriously out of step, not only with society, but with their own members.’

Ed Thornton, Church Times, 8 March 2013

Resources

Reform, whose Director Rod Thomas was one of the debate speakers, lists various resources explaining their approach to gender difference and women’s ministry

For an alternative, evangelical Church of England viewpoint, Fulcrum has a searchable archive of articles

Interview with Jimmy Carter about women and religion

This event was held at QEIICC, Westminster, Thursday 14 March 2013