Women and Religious Traditions

by Leona Anderson (Editor), Pamela Dickey Young (Editor)

This text looks at women and religion in a wide range of international Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Aboriginal religions, and new religions that focus on the Goddess. Each chapter is organized around common themes and two case studies of
experiences of religious women in North America are included.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion

286 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2004

Reviews

[faith adams-michaels · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book about so many different religious traditions. No matter what you believe or how you believe it, understanding how those beliefs have and do pertain to women is crucial to the effects of those beliefs on women, and therefore on everyone. Women have been erased, ignored, diminished, and degraded for centuries, often due to patriarchal systems of power that were validated by religion. The authors did an excellent job of gathering the work of experts in each tradition, each of whom strived to provide a woman-centric and objective perspective. Highly recommend.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm using this as a textbook in my class on Women in Religion. Frankly, I chose it because it was used by the most recently previous instructor of this class, but I doubt I'll use it again because the chapters are very much written in a way that's geared for the higher academic set, graduate school more than a 200 level course. Also, it leaves out some religions rather unconscionably, where there's a lot of interesting aspects of women's religious identity and participation to discuss, such as Shinto and lumping all the "Chinese religions" together in a single chapter. It's clear that the authors are experts in their areas, but it's not as accessible as I'd hoped.

[Elizabeth Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but far too short to provide anything in-depth on any of the religions covered. It's intended as a university-level textbook and I think it does a good job in that respect, although it does demand a certain base-level of knowledge on each of the religions discussed. Due to the authors (and probably the scope of the project), much of the discussion is broad, generic, and in modern religion especially it is limited to North America.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty thorough coverage of women's roles in doctrinal religion and how women are viewed. The same topics are covered per religion (even though the essays are written by different people), which makes for easy comparison.