Gender and Cultivating the Moral Self in Islam: Muslim Converts in an American Mosque

Rao, Aliya Hamid

doi:10.1093/socrel/srv030

Cited by 30 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Latino Protestants may draw upon the structurally voluntaristic nature of their affiliation to motivate their social attitudes (Bartkowski et al 2012). Among orthodox Jewish women and converts to Sunni Islam, with their decentralized religious organizational contexts, gendered scripts may enable conflict avoidance (Avishai 2008;Rao 2016). While continuing to investigate the moderate majority's beliefs in light of elite "culture wars," future scholars must acknowledge that a substantial proportion of laypersons who disagree with religious teachings manage dissent individually, through everyday interactions in a specific institutional context.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silent Disagreement: Microinteractional Solutions to Moral Dissent Among Catholic Converts

Ellis

2017

Scientific Study of Religion

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How do converts manage their disagreements with religious teachings? Previous literature on religious dissent has largely focused on church members advocating change or apostatizing, solutions largely unavailable to initiates. Based on six months of ethnographic observations in a Catholic conversion class and 21 in‐depth interviews with converts, sponsors, and teachers, I demonstrate how microinteractional norms encourage an atmosphere of silence around disagreement. I then show how initiates explain this conflict avoidant response by justifying their doubt, engaging in a process of hierarchical deference, in which initiates call upon the top‐down structure of the Catholic Church to defer control upward, and faulting human imperfection rather than the institution itself. While “culture wars” debates of the past two decades have investigated a purported moral polarization of the American public, this study contributes to a growing literature on how the moderate majority negotiates disagreements between their beliefs and religious teachings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silent Disagreement: Microinteractional Solutions to Moral Dissent Among Catholic Converts

Ellis

2017

Scientific Study of Religion

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“…Of course, no discussion of complex inequality would be complete without a summary of how gender relates to religion and politics, especially given recent work highlighting the importance of "doing gender" for "doing religion" (West & Zimmerman 1987;Bartkowski 2004, Avishai 2008, Rao 2015. However, very little work has looked at the intersections of gender with these other factors.…”

Section: Gender Religion and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Complex Religion Can Improve Our Understanding of American Politics

Wilde

Glassman

2016

Annu. Rev. Sociol.

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Sociologists have long acknowledged the importance of religion for American politics, especially for two groups of people: (a) (white) conservative Protestants, who are increasingly affiliated with the religious right, and (b) progressives, who are more and more disaffiliated from organized religion. However, a comprehensive statement of the ways in which religion matters for politics, the context in which it matters and does not matter, and how this has changed over time is lacking. Recent reviews acknowledge that at best, the relationship between religion and politics in the United States is "not straightforward" (Grzymala-Busse 2012, p. 427). We contend that this is primarily a result of the fact that neither the sociology of religion nor political sociology adequately considers the role that inequality (especially race and class but also gender) play in religious affiliation (and nonaffiliation). As a result, both fields have neglected to systematically examine the ways in which class and race may shape the relationship between religion and politics in the United States. We thus argue that both fields would benefit from engagement with theories of complex inequality that take seriously the ways in which inequalities of race, class, and gender interact (McCall 2001). In doing so, scholars also need to recognize that these structures of inequality are deeply intertwined with religious group membership-a theoretical argument that we call complex religion. 15.1

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“…In another paradox-which I will argue is related to and can help explain the underdog paradox-religion is men-dominated and yet women-populated. Although religion can promote patriarchal beliefs and gender inequality (Edgell 2006;Edgell and Docka 2007;Schnabel 2016a), women being more religious than men is one of the most consistent findings in the social sciences and has motivated a vibrant literature on how women exert agency in conservative and even patriarchal religions (Agadjanian 2015;Avishai 2008;Burke 2012;Charrad 2011;Khurshid 2015;Prickett 2015;Rao 2015).…”

Section: The Underdog Paradoxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Religion Suppress Gender Differences in Values? A Cross-National Examination

Schnabel¹

2018

Preprint

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Women are typically more liberal than men. But on some issues related to "traditional moral values"-including sexuality and the beginning and end of life-women are just as if not more conservative than men. This study examines the role of religion in complicating the relationship between gender and values cross-nationally, with particular attention to variation across religious groups and contexts. Using data from a diverse set of 56 countries in the World Values Survey (N=85,181), I find that religiousness suppresses what would otherwise be larger and more consistent gender differences in values among Christians. Among most other groups, including Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and Muslims in non-Muslim contexts, religiousness does not greatly alter gender differences in values. However, among Muslims in Muslim-majority contexts-where men tend to be more religious than women-religiousness amplifies what would otherwise be smaller gender differences in values. Accordingly, gender differences in values tend to be larger among Muslims than Christians. I conclude that religions are complex and powerful social structures with heterogeneous social consequences. Keywords Gender Differences in Values 2Women tend to be more liberal than men. In many contexts, women are more likely to claim liberal identities, espouse egalitarian values, and vote for progressive politicians (Beutel and Marini 1995;Box-Steffensmeier, DeBoef, and Lin 2004;Charrad 2011;Davis and Robinson 1991;Hadler 2012;Inglehart and Norris 1999;Manza and Brooks 1998;McDermott 2016;Pratto, Stallworth, and Sidanius 1997;Shapiro and Mahajan 1986). Yet, in a gender-and-politics paradox, women are just as if not more conservative than men on certain issues related to notions of "traditional morality"-including gender-related issues such as abortion-in at least some contexts (Barkan 2014;Schnabel 2018). In another gender paradox, religion tends to be mendominated and yet women-populated . Historic religious figures and current religious leaders are predominantly men, and religion often promotes patriarchal beliefs and gender inequality (Edgell 2006;Edgell and Docka 2007;Schnabel 2016a).Nevertheless, women being more religious than men is one of the most consistent findings in the social sciences (Hoffmann 2009). Although the gender gap in religion is frequently noted, its political repercussions are largely ignored (but see Rinehart and Perkins 1989). As I will demonstrate, gender differences in religion help explain the gender-and-politics paradox on certain "traditional moral values" 2 related to sexuality and the beginning and end of life.In this study, I argue that religion intersects with social status characteristics such as gender and that the social consequences of religiosity vary across religious groups and contexts (Read and Eagle 2014;Schnabel 2016b;Stewart, Frost, and Edgell 2017;Wilde and Glassman 2016 Christianity specifically may be a feminine-typed "underdog" religion, appealing more to women based on gendered social norms and women...

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Gender and Cultivating the Moral Self in Islam: Muslim Converts in an American Mosque

Cited by 30 publications

References 24 publications

Silent Disagreement: Microinteractional Solutions to Moral Dissent Among Catholic Converts

Silent Disagreement: Microinteractional Solutions to Moral Dissent Among Catholic Converts

How Complex Religion Can Improve Our Understanding of American Politics

Does Religion Suppress Gender Differences in Values? A Cross-National Examination

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