Journal Articles

Women’s Religious Authority in a Sub-Saharan Setting Dialectics of Empowerment and Dependency

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Western scholarship on religion and gender has devoted considerable attention to women’s entry into leadership roles across various religious traditions and denominations. However, very little is known about the dynamics of women’s religious authority and leadership in developing settings, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, a region of powerful and diverse religious expressions. This study employs a combination of uniquely rich and diverse data to examine women’s formal religious authority in a predominantly Christian setting in Mozambique. I first use survey data to test hypotheses regarding the prevalence and patterns of women’s formal leadership across different denominational groups. I then support and extend the quantitative results with insights on pathways and consequences of women’s ascent to formal congregation authority drawn from qualitative data. The analysis illustrates how women’s religious authority both defies and reasserts the gendered constraints of the religious marketplace and the broader gender ideology in this developing context.

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Detail Information

Series Title

GENDER & SOCIETY

Call Number

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Publisher

Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications., 2015

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0891-2432

Classification

NONE

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Volume 29, Issue 6 Desember 2015, pages 982-1008

Subject(s)

Religion
Sub-Saharan Africa
Gender ideology
Women’s leadership

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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