Man's Dominion: The Rise of Religion and the Eclipse of Women's Rights

by Sheila Jeffreys

In this feminist critique of the politics of religion, Sheila Jeffreys argues that the renewed rise of religion is harmful to women’s human rights. The book seeks to rekindle the criticism of religion as the founding ideology of patriarchy. Focusing on the three monotheistic religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam, this book examines common anti-women attitudes such as ‘male-headship’, impurity of women, the need to control women’s bodies, and their modern manifestations in multicultural Western states. It points to the incorporation of religious law into legal systems, faith schools, and campaigns led by Christian and Islamic organisations against women’s rights at the U.N., and explains how religious rights threaten to subvert women’s rights. Including highly-topical chapters on the burka and the covering of women, and polygamy, this text questions the ideology of multiculturalism which shields religion from criticism by demanding respect for culture and faith, whilst ignoring the harm that women suffer from religion. Man’s Dominion is an incisive and polemic text that will be of interest to students of gender studies, religion, and politics.

Genres: Feminism, Religion, Nonfiction, Feminist Theory, Womens, Politics, History

232 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2011

About the author

Sheila Jeffreys writes and teaches in the areas of sexual politics, international gender politics, and lesbian and gay politics. She has written six books on the history and politics of sexuality. Originally from the UK, Sheila moved to Melbourne in 1991 to take up a position at the University of Melbourne. She has been actively involved in feminist and lesbian feminist politics, particularly around the issue of sexual violence, since 1973. She is involved with the international non-government organization, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, in international organising.

She is the author of The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality, 1880-1930 (1985/1997) Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution (1990), The Lesbian Heresy: A Feminist Perspective on the Lesbian Sexual Revolution (1993), The Idea of Prostitution (1997), Unpacking Queer Politics: a lesbian feminist perspective (2003) and Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West (2005).

Reviews

[[Name Redacted]]

I've read excerpts from this, and Jeffrey's approach to the material betrays a general ignorance of the subject at hand. She has imbibed deeply from the well of modern "popular" history which presents the past as we choose to believe it happened, rather than as it actually happened. This is a common failing in the liberal arts and soft sciences and many of us wind up serving as corrective influences as a result. Based on what I've read, Jeffreys seems entirely unaware of the fact that part of the appeal of Judaism and Christianity was their comparatively pro-female stances (especially compared to the vast majority of Roman religions, even those which emphasized goddess worship); this was why every record indicates that the majority of Christian converts were women. Even secular Roman society (which did exist) considered the woman to be inferior to and the property of the man, and we have numerous historical evidences of men from throughout the ancient world ordering their wives to abort pregnancies and abandon children (especially female children) who were considered burdensome or unwanted. Christianity especially appealed to women who came from societies which mandated remarriage -- a Christian woman could choose not to remarry, or even choose not to marry at all in the first place. Judaism as well appealed to women because of the elaborate social and legal structures set up to ensure that women could not be abandoned or kicked out onto the street. Would they match the ambitions of modern Third Wave feminists? No. But as the Womanist movement has proven, modern Third Wave feminism has remarkably limited and selective ambitions.

I'll probably wind up writing a critique of this when the full product comes out, but for now I'm just going to pinch the bridge of my nose and await the armchair historians and "scholars" who'll try and cite this sort of thing to back their erroneous theories. It's like the people who cite Gibbon's theories about the fall of the Roman Empire without noting the author's own fascistic biases. I sometimes wish I'd picked another discipline...

[Astir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not that this book hasn't been vital every day for century upon century, but as the Taliban take Afghanistan and Texas bans abortions, Jeffreys' concerns of the global strengthening of religiosity and its power to control women's lives feels incredibly pertinent. One chapter is focused on a critique of the ideologies surrounding multiculturalism, and this is not something I ever thought I'd appreciate, but Jeffreys makes compelling arguments that culture in and of itself may not be a net good to women - through the actions and attitudes it perpetuates - and an uncritical embrace of multiculturalist idealism risks abandoning pockets of women into fiefdoms in which their rights may be curtailed to a standard lower than that of those countenanced by society at large.

[dorotea · Rating 4 out of 5]

took me too long to finish this; but it’s because academic texts like these (especially ones talking about misogyny) are hard to get through at times.

this was a good read and i believe an essential one for radical feminists. and for feminists who still try to argue that religion can be feminist. it absolutely cannot. and it isn’t.

jeffreys writes about it better than i could ever do, so read her.

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This woman seriously needs a better editor, but other than that, perfection. Ruthlessly logical and impeccably researched - i.e., business as usual for Sheila Jeffreys.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive review of how religious and cultural rights are used to impede the human rights of women.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

For work. But apparently I was the only one who actually finished reading it.

[Neila · Rating 3 out of 5]

boring, nothing groundbreaking. as a woman who lives in a conservative Muslim majority country much of this book was pointing out the obvious. it tried to cover so much it didn't have much depth for each particular issue. very very repetitive... little analysis

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Religion has much for which to answer, and its treatment of women is one of the most insidious issues. Jeffreys probes why this is the case. For a fuller review, please see Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.