Women And Religious Traditions By Leona M. Anderson And Pamela Dickey Young

From diverse origin stories to varying deities to the specific rituals each religion practices, every religion may seem blatantly unique. However, upon further investigation, one can deduce that there are indistinguishable characteristics that are apparent in almost every religious group. There is an underlying toxic pattern to religions in every corner of the world, and that is the marginalization of women. It seems that every prominent religion struggles with the idea of giving women any sort of power. Across time, women have been separately fighting against their oppression, but their struggles have unified them into a loudening voice that will, one day, be impossible to silence. Throughout the book, Women and Religious Traditions, authors Leona M. Anderson and Pamela Dickey Young gather a complex set of information from a breadth of religions. From this

Within the past century, social change movements have started to seep into religion: “Religions are starting to integrate human rights issues into their teachings, and with that, gender equality” (Anderson and Young 112). One of the most pressing issues is arguably the lack of female presence in positions of power. For centuries, women have been working to ameliorate the inequalities that have plagued religion and society. Progress has been painstakingly slow. Women have gathered and formed groups to oppose the ongoing marginalization of women within each religion. For example, Women of the Wall was formed to protest the exclusion of women praying in certain spaces on the Western Wall, and for the dictation of what they can and cannot wear. Deborah