God, Guardian, and the Gender Agenda 2
The week was spent in further reflection 🤔 on the biases women and men have against the feminine gender, and how these ingrained prejudices form our gender social norms.
Biased gender social norms mean “the undervaluation of women’s capabilities and rights in society.
"(They) constrain women’s choices and opportunities by regulating behaviour and setting the boundaries of what women are expected to do and be,” the UNDP 2023 Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) Report explained.”
After resolving the misleading UNDP statistical probability reported by The Guardian, snap surveys among random groups of people during the week showed that both men and women normalise bias against women, going by the 4 dimensions and 7 indicators in the report.
According to the UNDP, “the Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) captures beliefs on gender equality in capabilities and rights.
The report stresses that the GSNI approach “differs from achievement-based objective measures of gender equality, which assess gender gaps in terms of outcomes.”
Instead, “by focusing on beliefs, biases and prejudices, it provides an in-depth account of the root causes of gender inequality that hinder progress for women and girls.”
So, last week, we asked: “Could these beliefs include those about God? Could our religious biases be the root causes of gender social norms that are unfair to women? Could our misguided pieties blind us to prejudices against the girl child?”
We attempted answers to these slippery belief questions.
And here they are.
First, we discovered that countries which have higher populations of people who do not believe in God - atheists and agnostics - tend to have lower bias against women.
In short, the fewer the atheists and agnostics in a country, the higher the number of people with biases against women.
As you would expect, our research showed the opposite was the case in countries where religious people dominated.
The more religious people in a country, the more the biased people against women there.
Why is this so?
And what has belief in God got to do with this?
The Religious Construct of the Feminine Physique
The majority of the world religions reviewed in this research view the female physical body as a sub-construct of the masculine body.
This is the case in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The etymolgy of the word woman evolves from nothing else than her physical proximity to a man.
Notice that her own unique temperaments and mental capacities were not factored into her designation as woman.
And all the other biases follow from the obsession with the body rather than the mind of a woman.
For instance, in the paper “The Discrimination of Women in Buddhism: An Ethical Analysis”, Archana Paudel and Qun Dong wrote:
“Women are not considered as a complete entity in Buddhism. Their body is not considered fit to attain enlightenment and become Buddha. There is a concept that women are not complete until they attain enlightenment to become reborn as a man. It is clearly stated in the Bahudhatuka-sutta that there could never be a female Buddha.”
This kind of religious bias against the equal integrity of female bodies with their male counterparts, a proxy for bias against their physical integrity, normalised worse socioeconomic repressions:
“(Women) were considered as being on the same level as the Sudras, the lowest of the four castes. Their freedom was extremely limited. The general view appears to be that they had to be under the care of parents in their childhood, under the protection of husbands in their youth; and in their old age they had to be under the control of their sons.”
Little wonder then why, among the four dimensions of discrimination against women, the bias against a woman's body has the strongest connection to religious beliefs, at 0.55 çoefficient of coreĺàtion.
The Secular Construct of the Feminine Psyche
While patriarchal religious narratives dwell more on the physical otherness of the female, secular thoughts invest more thoughts on the complementary compensational attributes of the feminine psyche regarding the masculine.
For instance, while science regards the female temperament as distinct from the masculine, it does not consider feminine traits as a subconstruct of the masculine.
In fact, psychology often journal an overlap of the masculine and feminine traits in both sexes, such that neither man or woman is purely masculine or purely feminine.
For instance, psychologist Jordan Peterson, while distinguishing Chaos, the feminine archetype, from Order, the masculine archetype, stresses: "I don't draw a moral distinction with regard to the utility of order versus chaos."
Instead Peterson highlights the equal necessity of these two seemingly contradictory archetypes for individual and collective human progress:
"Order is the domain of what we have comprehended and control, and we certainly want to comprehend things and control them because we want things to turn out the way we want them to turn out, and that’s the definition of control.
"Chaos is the domain that surrounds that from which all new things flow, which is also part of the reason that it’s feminine because the feminine is that from which all new things flow, as well as that which rejects the order and selects.
"Femininity speaks of creativity and the conception of the new. Masculinity speaks of cohesion and control of the new. Both connect (and are often thought to contend) in an endless cycle of birth and rebirth.
"Since each of us has some masculine and feminine traits, a counterbalance is required to ensure the masculine discovery of the feminine unknown and the feminine development of the masculine known."
Path to Progress: From Physique to Psyche
The world's 🌎 religious obsession with the woman's 👩 body drives the opposition to her money, meaning and mind.
Dataphyte's correlation measurements show stronger links between religious beliefs and bias against women's bodies than with the other 3 forms of bias.
It returned 55% correlation between religious beliefs and bias against women's physical integrity.
This is followed by 44% correlation for bias against women's economic emancipation.
Next is 39% correlation for bias against women’s political power.
The weakest is the 38% correlation for bias against women's educational advancement.
Likewise, the UNDP Gender Social Norms Index shows that gender bias against women's bodies is the highest among the 4 domains of biases (see table below).
However, the GSNI data shows that Nigeria has made progress in all the 4 domains of gender bias between the 2010-2014 period and the 2017-2022 period.
The level of bias reduced in all 4 domains between the 2 periods.
This is the case too for the global averages within the 2 periods.
Yet, the trend shows that for Nigeria 🇳🇬 and the world, biases against women's bodies still tops the list of gender concerns - vestiges of the patriarchal bent of religious ritual.
We suggest a review of the free exercise of our religious rights in ways that promote gender equality efforts, rather than those that oppose it.
This requires honest dialogues in 3 prominent areas:
First, the interpretation of Religious Texts. Religious texts and scriptures often play a central role in guiding the beliefs and practices of religious communities. However, interpretations of these texts can vary significantly, and some interpretations may perpetuate patriarchal norms and discriminatory practices against women.
In certain religious traditions, specific passages or teachings from religious texts have been used to justify unequal treatment of women, limiting their access to education, healthcare, and decision-making positions.
Such interpretations can hinder efforts to promote gender equality by reinforcing traditional gender roles and norms that prioritize male authority and control over women's lives.
Second, Gender-Based Religious Practices: Many religious traditions have gender-specific practices that assign distinct roles and responsibilities to men and women within the community.
These practices may limit women's participation in religious leadership, rituals, or ceremonies, thereby restricting their agency and influence.
For example, some religious institutions may not permit women to hold positions of authority or serve as religious leaders, excluding them from decision-making processes and perpetuating male dominance within the religious hierarchy.
These gender-based practices can create barriers for women's advancement and impede their full participation in religious life and institutions.
Thirdly, Conflict with International Human Rights Standards: Religious rights, as protected by freedom of religion or belief, can sometimes conflict with international human rights standards that promote gender equality.
In some cases, religious freedom may be invoked to justify practices that discriminate against women, such as restricting their access to education, healthcare, or economic opportunities.
Religious rights may also be used to oppose or obstruct legal reforms aimed at advancing women's rights, including laws related to gender-based violence, reproductive rights, and marriage equality.
This clash between religious rights and gender equality efforts can create challenges in ensuring the full realization of women's rights as recognized under international human rights frameworks.
It is essential to acknowledge that while religious beliefs and practices can pose challenges to gender equality efforts, not all religious communities interpret their faith in ways that perpetuate discrimination against women.
There are individuals and religious leaders within various traditions who actively work to promote gender equality and challenge discriminatory practices.
Engaging in interfaith dialogue, promoting feminist interpretations of religious texts, and fostering partnerships between women's rights advocates and religious communities can help address these challenges and advance gender equality within the context of religious beliefs and practices.
This way we support the United Nations efforts in “Breaking Down Gender Biases: Shifting social norms towards gender equality," as its June 2023 GSNI Report implies.
Have a week of genuine gender conversations and watch out for more of these soul-searching conversations on Dataphyte"s Gender Agenda-setting podcast, XY CONVOS!
See you next weekend!