Women and Major World Religions a Study in Comparative Religion

The main objective of this is to institute a critical and comparative study of the problem of women's status and dignity from philosophical and sociological considerations in major world religions. This problem is important from ethico-philosophical considerations from the perspective of sociology of religion. The discussion covers five major world religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It attempts to open a chapter in philosophical foundation of sociology of religion, which consists of empirical study and philosophical evaluation. It is indeed true that the laws, norms related to the status of women irrespective of religions originated and developed in different socio-cultural and historical situations. But women's status is pictured as mostly static and marginal in the society. Without the vindication of the rights of women at par with male counter-part as human beings sociological study of religions about women's issues will fail to address the 'why-ness' aspect of the said problem. Therefore, the feminist ontology as well as ethics ought to have been explored in the second chapter of the thesis for advocating equal dignity for all human beings in society, irrespective of different religious community. It is suggested to prepare a philosophical foundation for the vindication of the rights of women and new norms for dealing with the problems related to women without contradicting the philosophical aspects of major world religions. At the beginning, we have instituted our enquiry about the roles of reason and society in making religious rites and rituals. The thesis ends with the searching for the ontology of womanhood or what is called the essence of woman. The study finds that woman is not being treated as a human being at par with male counterpart in all major world religions. She is usually treated as a means, not as an end. Her identity is socially constructed by male-chauvinistic power structure. Finally, comparing the approaches of different major world religions with regard to the ideal and the actual status of women, it is showed that women are almost always regarded as secondary or inferior to the men in the major world religions, although Buddhism gives a comparatively better picture in the context.