The studies analyzed in this paper examined various aspects of the changes in religious congregation that recently occur in the American society. Also, the studies concerned the approaches used by women to reduce gender disparities in religious congregations.
Beaman (2001) introduced a study related the issue of contradiction roles of Mormon women who are encouraged to participate in public life and be financially independent while being taught to focus on family life. The author used a life story approach that is recognized as an effective research method of research in sociological science. The findings of the research appeared to be similar to the findings of the previous studies focused on negotiation of women’s role in conservative religious traditions stating that there is a contradiction between traditional women’s roles and the changes in the contemporary society. The limitation of this research is that the authors did not consider the experience of ethnic minorities when interviewing only white women.
Adams (2007) conducted a research related underrepresentation of women in religious organizations in the US. The author came to an important conclusion that despite of active participation of women in religious activity, they rarely occupy leadership positions. Interestingly, the most important finding was that formally women are allowed to attain top leadership positions in congregation, but the barriers that are created to hamper this activity differ from the traditional glass ceiling concept. The study interlinks with the research conducted by Beaman (2001) in terms of traditional women’s roles in the society stating that women still are perceived as homemakers rather than public leaders.
Bradshaw and Ellison (2009) had greatly contributed to the research of the relative religiosity of men and women because this phenomenon was poorly explained in the previous research. The authors argued that higher women religiosity is a product of biological and environmental influences. They made an attempt to explain gender-related gap in religiosity from the perspective related propensity of men toward risky behavior. However, the findings should be interpreted cautiously because biological influences that are important for the dominant sociological theory can be confounding. The conclusion that both sociological and biological factors are important in forming religiosity shed light on interpretation of gender roles in the society.
Bartkowski and Read (2003) concerned the issue of affiliation of women with conservative religious communities. The authors made a significant contribution into the studies related comparison of different religious experiences, namely Islam and evangelical Protestantism. The most interesting finding of Bartkowski and Read (2003) was that both Protestants and Muslim woman affirm their traditional religious values by assigning new meaning to their convictions. The study expresses ideas similar to Beaman (2001) in terms of negotiating the traditional roles of women in religious congregations.
Jenkins and Marti (2012) offered a research that demonstrated a new approach to constructing of an innovative evangelical identity in the evangelical congregation called God Chicks. Similarly to Beaman (2001), Adams (2007), and Bartkowski and Read (2003), the authors emphasized the challenges women face when facing the necessity to reconsider their traditional roles in religious congregations. Jenkins and Marti (2012) succeeded to represent the contemporary trends in religious communities considering women from a perspective that contradicts with traditional perception of women in religious congregations.
Despite of all of the studies concerned different issues, they expressed one shared opinion that gender inequality still occurs. The relationships inside of religious communities need to be reconsidered as well as the traditional roles of women in religious congregations.
References
Adams, J. (2007). Stained glass makes the ceiling visible: organizational opposition to women in congregational leadership. Gender and Society, 21(1), 80-105.
Bartkowski, J.P. and Jen’nan Ghazal Read, J.G. (2003). Veiled submission: gender, power, and identity among Evangelical and Muslim women in the United States. Qualitative Sociology, 26(1), 71-92.
Beaman, L.G. (2001). Molly Mormons, Mormon feminists and moderates: religious diversity and the Latter Day Saints. Sociology of Religion, 62(1), 65-86.
Bradshaw, M. and Ellison, C.G. (2009). The nature-nurture debate is over, and both sides lost! Implications for understanding gender differences in religiosity. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 48(2), 241–251.
Jenkins, K.E. and Marti, G. (2012). Warrior chicks: youthful aging in a postfeminist prosperity discourse. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(2), 241–256.
