The Choice of Religion - Essay Example

RELIGION AND GENDER Student’s Name University Affiliation Religion and Gender By definition, the term gender is used to refer to the anatomic sex or the sexual assignment of an individual and the social and cultural aspects that are associated with being either male or female. The gender of an individual can either be male or female and there are no intermediate states. Gender is definite and this means that an individual does not choose his or her gender but is born that way. There are a few exceptions to this school of thought as there exist some children who are born with both male and female traits and organs. However, the number of such children is so small and largely because these conditions are regarded as birth defects (Bryson 2015, p. 624). On the other hand, religion can be described as a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance. There are very many religions available and an individual has a choice of the religion he or she is part of. The choice of religion is a fundamental right of an individual and is protected by the international human rights laws. Individual constitutions of countries also allow citizens to choose their religion as long as it does not interfere with the rights of others. The most common religions in the world today by virtue of the number of people who are known to be part of are; Christianity, Islam, Hindu and Buddhism (Bryson 2015, p. 624). Gendered assumptions are simplistic generalizations that are made based on the gender of an individual relating to things a person is or not allowed to do. The assumptions are specific for male persons and different but also specific for the ladies. These assumptions are based on many social and economic factors that are not necessarily written but are known by both men and women. Among the factors that generate these assumptions, is the religion which a society ascribes to. The religious based gender assumptions are very common in any society and are passed from generation to generation by teachings that in the religious centers depending on the people in question. Different religions have aspects of their doctrine which they consider to be no go zones for, say, men and other which women are not allowed doing (Bryson 2015, p. 643). These gender based religious assumptions are the basis of this paper. For example it is largely accepted throughout the world that women should stay at home and not study because their work was mostly to raise the children. These beliefs have nowadays been discarded and women are as entitled to formal education as men are. With increasing modernization in the world today, some of these assumptions are being slowly loosely adhered to and the impact of these assumptions on the contemporary Australian society will be focused on in this paper. The gender based issues that affect the Australian people can be largely divided into three; family gender roles, society dress codes and lastly leadership roles generally and also within religious organizations. These gender based assumptions have several causes and which lead to various situations either good or bad which we find ourselves in as a result of allowing these changes to occur in our societies (Bryson 2015, p. 643). Within the family from time in memorial, the rules of the men and women in the family unit have been largely defined and have for the large part been rigid. In many religious societies across the Australian continent, the man has been seen as the head of the house hold. This meant that the man was responsible for bringing home the ‘bacon’. This meant that most of the time the man was out and about looking for food and sustenance for the family. In the traditional Australian society the men of the village left the homes early and had to come home with food which was then up to the ladies to prepare the same meal for the entire family. As the men went out to get food for the family, the women were left behind to care for the children (Bryson 2015, 624).Religion did not change the traditional family roles as the men were still the breadwinners while the women were still the primary care giver for the children. The religious societies in Australia were strongly supported these roles and the roles have been held constant for most of the 19th century (Bryson 2015, p. 624). The contemporary Australian society has started to change the level of strictness with which it hold these roles. Since the turn of the century, the number of women that have joined the workforce has increases exponentially. With the state of the economy, the increasing numbers of women that have joined the Australian workforce have the backing of religious leaders irrespective of the religious affiliation of the family (Sugimoto, Ni & Lariviere 2015, p. 10). According to Australian therapist, the increasing number of women leaving the homesteads to help put food on their tables has left the family unit suffering adversely. The assumption that women are to stay at home and raise the children has in the recent past not been followed as hard as it was emphasized by both religion and tradition and religion in the past. The impact on the change in the gender role in this regard has left the family unit in turmoil. The change in the gender roles based on the previous held assumptions is a change that was meant to happen and that loosened stance by the religious and gender rights groups has played a huge part in the acceptance of the change in today society (Schober 2013, p. 2). Another assumed gender issue in the society is with regards to dressing. Dressing is a major issue all over the world and not just in the Australian continent. From time in memorial, dressing for both genders has been distinct and neither the ladies nor gents dared cross the predetermined dress codes. For the longest time, ladies were designated long skirts while the gentlemen were much freer in their dressing but mostly wore pants (Schober 2013, p. 4). The dress codes were not only due to the traditional unwritten rules but drew strong support from the religious groups. Across the religious divide, these dress codes were up held and the people were faithful to the codes that were assigned to them. Religion dictated that people who digressed from these codes will be punished by unimaginable torture with Christians having the threat of hell keeping them within the prescribed codes (Kindornay, Ron & Carpenter 2012, p. 2). The turn of the century has seen the severity with which the Australian people adhered to these roles reduce significantly. The fashion world trends have also played a very important role in the acceptance of swapped roles in regard to dressing among the Australian people. The increased technology has led to the fashion trends moving into the remote areas of the Australian continent. As it stands, the number of women who go about their daily activities in pants has greatly increased. Fashion trends at the moment has not only allowed the ladies to put on pants, but ladies across the world have gone ahead to wear shorter skirts than they were earlier known to wear. The fashion trends have not gone unnoticed as they have been largely accepted by the society (Bryson 2015, p. 624). Despite strong opposition from the religious world to the dressing changes that have been brought about by the fashion world, these changes have slowly crept into the religious organizations. The Muslim religion has had the highest opposition to these changes in the dressing by the ladies as the so called ‘transformed ’ladies being termed as infidels by the Muslim faithful. The resistance by the Islamic society is slowly wearing down as the ladies who profess Muslim faith are at times seen in pants and sometimes in the short skirts. But the ladies are careful enough to go back to their conservative wardrobe when they go to their places of worship. The Christian community has been far more accepting to the changes and this can even be seen from the church leaders who can also be seen in their pantsuits. Conservative traditional Australian societies have been seen to stick to their former dress codes where only rebellious ladies seeming to digress from the norm (Bryson 2015, p. 630). Traditionally, passing information with regards to religion or otherwise has always been left to the males in the society. This has been the norm in all common religious organizations that the male gender has taken the lead in the leadership of the religious institutions. The Muslim society has been the one with the strictest stands in this regard where the females are not even allowed to talk in the places of worship. The Muslim society has been considered to oppress the female gender and this has been as an accepted thing in the community. The traditional Christian societies have also had stand with all the sermons and church services being lead by the men. Basically, this was the acceptable role of the men and ladies in the religious community and was passed down from generation to generation (Bryson 2015, p. 624). The conteporary Australian society has loosened this stand on the roles of the men and women in the society to this regard. The Christian society has lead the way in watering down these roles and the services in the churches can flat out be led by ladies. According to statistics published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number pastors who are women have drastically increased. An article published by an Adelaide paper, The Advertiser, the publisher proposes that churches need more female pastors as there are better listeners and hence are better placed to guide their faithful in their tough times. This article was written in regard to Amel Manyon, a lady, who was ordained, a pastor in their local church. The other religions in Australia have held to their stand and have not allowed the change in the roles which have allowed the ladies to take up leadership positions in religious organizations (Gunda et al 2012, p. 2). The leadership roles that pertain to the men and women are not only limited to the religious society. The leadership of the country has been largely been left to the men where the ladies have left in the back seat. This has changed over the year as there is an increasing percentage of women have taken over leadership positions mostly in co-operations. In the political divide, since the inception of the parliamentary system in Australia, there have been 90 women to be elected in the Australian parliament since the year 1902. These have exponentially increased from the year 2000 as it has become increasingly accepted to have women leaders on the national scene. The number of women to take up leadership positions in organizations in Australia is even higher because the society awards hard work and chauvinism has taken a back seat in today economy. These roles have been widely accepted in the society as excellence is encouraged irrespective of the gender of the individual (Bryson 2015, p. 624). The gender and religious issues that have been highlighted above are as a result of changes that have occurred in the society. Some of the reasons for the role changes in the assumptions that have been held for a long time have been enumerated below. The impacts of these changes both negative and positive have been seen (Gunda et al 2012, p. 4). The change of the roles of the women as the primary care giver of the children to the part-provider for the family has been caused by the economic forces. The idea that only that man was to provide for the family has effectively become a forgotten ideology. To be able to be comfortable in this economic time, the idea of a single source of sustenance has become insufficient and hence the ladies are forced out of the homestead and into the workplaces. The religious society has been forced to accept this change and it has become like the normal thing Australia for both the man and the lady of the house to both have stable jobs (Sugimoto, Ni & Lariviere 2015, p. 6). The impact of this change is that the Australian families now have a larger purchasing power as there is more revenue in the houses due to the increased sources of income. The other result of this change is the degradation of the morals of the children in the family. This is because the mothers who were responsible for raising the children are now away from the kids for longer periods. The children are forced to pick up role models from television sets and this leads to the loose morals in children today (Fredericks 2014, p. 4). The changes in the dress code assumptions that dresses are for the ladies and pants are to be worn by the men in the house have mostly been forced on us by the fashion society. The changes in fashion trends have led to ladies in Australia, and around the globe, to start wearing pants and mini-skirts. The acceptance of the changes by the religious society is as a result of technological advancement i.e. when the churches in one area of the world accepts such trends the other regions are forced to accept the trends as the followers claim there is precedence to their claims. This change has affected the Australian society as a whole negatively as the dressing trends have gone out of hand and decency in dressing especially in institutions of higher learning is nonexistent (Gunda et al 2012, p. 4). The gender based assumption that leadership positions either in religion or cooperate organizations was reserved for men has changed drastically. This change has been brought about by the increasing percentage of ladies who take up formal education and pursue it to very high levels (Sugimoto, Ni & Lariviere, 2015). The increasing number of gender based rights groups in the world and the women movements in Australia have championed for the elevation of more women to leadership positions. When New Zealand allowed their women to vote in 1893, increasing pressure on Australia forced the hugely chauvinist country to relent their stand a year later. Since then, women have been taking part in the democratic duties with the first woman to be elected to the Australian parliament coming in 1902. The women movement from 1945 on has led to the increase elevation of women in the workplaces to top management. The role change has also been successful due to the increased number of women who pursue higher education. In today society, promotion in the job situation is largely due to merit and therefore if the ladies qualify for the part, then they can take up the positions (Fredericks 2014, p. 4). The impact of the acceptance of the changing roles of different gender groups has led to increased productivity and as a result the Australian economy has grown. The idea that excellence is awarded irrespective of the gender has been the foundation of the growth of the Australian economy. The only downside to the unchecked role changes is the degradation of the identity of the nation and picking up the poor traits of the other communities thereby degrading the values we once held dear (Bryson 2015, p. 624). References Bryson, M, 2015, Religious Women and Modern Men: Intersections of Gender and Ethnicity in the Tale of Woman Huang. Signs, 40(3), 623-646. Fredericks, B, 2014, Reempowering ourselves: Australian aboriginal women.Signs, 40(1). Gunda, B, Hervé, D, Godin, O, Bruno, M, Reyes, S, Alili, N, & Chabriat, H, 2012, Effects of gender on the phenotype of CADASIL. Stroke, 43(1), 137-141. Kindornay, S, Ron, J, & Carpenter, C, 2012, Rights-based approaches to development: implications for NGOs. Human Rights Quarterly, 34(2), 472-506. Schober, P, S, 2013, The parenthood effect on gender inequality: Explaining the change in paid and domestic work when British couples become parents.European sociological review, 29(1), 74-85. Sugimoto, C, R, Ni, C., & Larivière, V, 2015, On the relationship between gender disparities in scholarly communication and country-level development indicators. Science and Public Policy, scv007. Read More

Within the family from time in memorial, the rules of the men and women in the family unit have been largely defined and have for the large part been rigid. In many religious societies across the Australian continent, the man has been seen as the head of the house hold. This meant that the man was responsible for bringing home the ‘bacon’. This meant that most of the time the man was out and about looking for food and sustenance for the family. In the traditional Australian society the men of the village left the homes early and had to come home with food which was then up to the ladies to prepare the same meal for the entire family.

As the men went out to get food for the family, the women were left behind to care for the children (Bryson 2015, 624).Religion did not change the traditional family roles as the men were still the breadwinners while the women were still the primary care giver for the children. The religious societies in Australia were strongly supported these roles and the roles have been held constant for most of the 19th century (Bryson 2015, p. 624). The contemporary Australian society has started to change the level of strictness with which it hold these roles.

Since the turn of the century, the number of women that have joined the workforce has increases exponentially. With the state of the economy, the increasing numbers of women that have joined the Australian workforce have the backing of religious leaders irrespective of the religious affiliation of the family (Sugimoto, Ni & Lariviere 2015, p. 10). According to Australian therapist, the increasing number of women leaving the homesteads to help put food on their tables has left the family unit suffering adversely.

The assumption that women are to stay at home and raise the children has in the recent past not been followed as hard as it was emphasized by both religion and tradition and religion in the past. The impact on the change in the gender role in this regard has left the family unit in turmoil. The change in the gender roles based on the previous held assumptions is a change that was meant to happen and that loosened stance by the religious and gender rights groups has played a huge part in the acceptance of the change in today society (Schober 2013, p. 2). Another assumed gender issue in the society is with regards to dressing.

Dressing is a major issue all over the world and not just in the Australian continent. From time in memorial, dressing for both genders has been distinct and neither the ladies nor gents dared cross the predetermined dress codes. For the longest time, ladies were designated long skirts while the gentlemen were much freer in their dressing but mostly wore pants (Schober 2013, p. 4). The dress codes were not only due to the traditional unwritten rules but drew strong support from the religious groups.

Across the religious divide, these dress codes were up held and the people were faithful to the codes that were assigned to them. Religion dictated that people who digressed from these codes will be punished by unimaginable torture with Christians having the threat of hell keeping them within the prescribed codes (Kindornay, Ron & Carpenter 2012, p. 2). The turn of the century has seen the severity with which the Australian people adhered to these roles reduce significantly. The fashion world trends have also played a very important role in the acceptance of swapped roles in regard to dressing among the Australian people.

The increased technology has led to the fashion trends moving into the remote areas of the Australian continent. As it stands, the number of women who go about their daily activities in pants has greatly increased. Fashion trends at the moment has not only allowed the ladies to put on pants, but ladies across the world have gone ahead to wear shorter skirts than they were earlier known to wear. The fashion trends have not gone unnoticed as they have been largely accepted by the society (Bryson 2015, p. 624).

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