The role of women in the religions of Hinduism and Judaism reflects a trend in the history of the world’s religions to subjugate them in roles of inferiority. Like the majority of religions women usually start out as equal partners in the society and the writings of that society’s religion. But over time this trend is replaced by negative perception of women and misogyny becomes institutionalized in the society through the developing teachings and rituals of the religion.
In the religion of Hinduism, the early days of this religion allows the woman to be the equal to the man. This is seen in the Rig Veda, one of the earliest writings in the religion of Hinduism, establishes the family as central to the socio-religious structure of Hinduism. Although the structure of society of Hinduism is patriarchal and patrilineal, women were still a very important part in their roles of wives and mothers. As the home was the center of worship and the gods were thought to bless the family as a whole, women’s presence was integral in the participation of rituals. Women of the high caste enjoyed many more freedoms than later women in regards to marriage, divorce, and education (p93).
In the religion of Hinduism, the early days of this religion allows the woman to be the equal to the man. This is seen in the Rig Veda, one of the earliest writings in the religion of Hinduism, establishes the family as central to the socio-religious structure of Hinduism. Although the structure of society of Hinduism is patriarchal and patrilineal, women were still a very important part in their roles of wives and mothers. As the home was the center of worship and the gods were thought to bless the family as a whole, women’s presence was integral in the participation of rituals. Women of the high caste enjoyed many more freedoms than later women in regards to marriage, divorce, and education (p93).
Later texts, like the Brahamana texts for instance, changed the status of women in later Hindu society. Rites became more complicated and the knowledge that was necessary to perform them created the need for specialists. Education became the territory of men, while women were relegated to the home. Religion was now the exclusive province of men.
As women’s participation in the Hindu religion declined, and certain social trends developed to become problematic for women as these trends became exaggerated in later periods. “For example, young women were married to older men. Women were deemed eligible for marriage soon after puberty — at 15 or 16 years old – while men needed to complete their studies, which could take up to 16 years. Significantly, the status of Brahmin men was tied to education and related abilities. Because women were denied this education, their status was lowered, and this resulted in their denigration in writings by men. Such attitudes were no doubt internalized by the women themselves. At the same time, however, women were permitted a derivative by producing sons who would be educated and, therefore, qualified to perform rites for the family”. (pg.93)
“The ascetic ideal developed with the writing of the Aranyakas and the Upanishads with its ultimate focus of Hindu life as the realization of the One—Brahman. Ascetism, an option foreclosed to women, brought a further attitudinal shift toward them. Women were perceived by ascetics as an impediment on the road to liberation. “Many misogynist passages in the texts can be traced to the perspective of an ascetic-in-the-making who stereotyped women as temptresses before he had conquered his passions so that he was truly indifferent to the world. Even the order of Shankara, the great non-dualist master of Advaita Vedanta, was open only to men, and it represented the feminine principle only as maya, which you will recall is the way the universe is seen by the ignorant”. (pg. 93)
“Attitudes toward women shifted with social change, and so did the doctrinal authority of the religion. Although women poets had been authors of some of the hymns in the Vedas,” women were now nothing more than peasants and could no longer even listen to the recitation of the Vedas. While some favorable passages toward women could be found, the majority of expressions found in the Hindu works are negative towards women. The only role that the woman is permitted to occupy with reverence is in the role of wife and mother. (pg. 93)
The ideal Hindu wife is married with at least one son. She is chaste, humble, and wholly devoted to the welfare of her family. She takes care of herself only after the needs of her family is met. She is uneducated and lives only to contribute to the three of the four goals of life of her husband. These goals consist of providing physical pleasure and creating aesthetic pleasures in the home, to provide sons to honor the husband and father, and to contribute to the husband’s dharma by maintaining her own righteousness by fulfilling her role of a wife and in the performances of religious rituals.
Women have suffered greatly due to the classical attitudes which were allowed to persist until modern times. Examples of this were marriages of females as young as five years old, the practice of purdah or confining the woman to the home, and not allowing women to remarry if they became widowed even though the man was allowed to remarry after the death of a wife.
It wasn’t until the British occupation of India that brought reforms for women. Although the British initially did not want to interfere in customs and religious practices that kept the Indian populace in their place, eventually the British introduced reform to the Indian populace through their court system that was imposed upon the Indian people. A reform movement also sprang from the Indian people itself in the hope of removing the British from their homeland and taking the control of their governance back to themselves. Eventually the Indian people won their independence and many rights were given to women under the new constitution, and many women were able to contribute to the creation of this new government. The new government passed laws to make women equal to men, examples of which were equal pay, prohibited polygamy and sexual harassment, raising the status of women like never before.
Although the trend toward women’s liberation has been promising there are still some problems that exist for Indian women to this day.
For the length of its history, Judaism has been characterized as ambivalent towards women. Women on the one hand are celebrated in their roles as wives, mothers to the point of being glorified in the Jewish Tradition. On the other hand, women mere vilified and disparaged for their threatening sexuality. As what happened in Hinduism, the system of education was only accessible by men. This resulted in women being left out of the participation and definition of the religious faith, leaving no trace of them in the literature of the Jewish faith except for where they intersect with men, marriage, offspring, divorce, etc.
There is no clear cut idealized definition of what the woman in the Jewish faith is due the various characterizations of women in Jewish literature. There is a broad spectrum of behaviors of women in the Jewish literature that is seen in a reverential light. Women have played many roles during the history of the Jewish faith, from prophets to warriors.
Despite that diversity of roles that women have played in the development of the Jewish tradition the roles that get them the most attention is that of wife and mother. The one thing that became a woman’s most idealized quality was her fertility, particularly her ability to produce male offspring. This could be both a blessing and curse for a woman though; the production of children was seen as a blessing, while a barren woman was seen to be cursed by the Hebrew God. The failure to produce children could also be an automatic ground for divorce for the husband.
As much as women were relegated into a narrow status in the Jewish faith, the status that they were offered was the broadest compared to many other traditions. Women were not relegated to acting solely within the home. The ideal Jewish wife was actually expected to be quite ambitious and adept when it came to maintain the functioning of the home. The wife is as much a blessing to the husband as Eve was to Adam, and this idea is reflected in the Proverbs. In another book of the Jewish Canon, the Talmud, going against its regular tone of moderation in regards to encouraging of the husband to lavish his wealth on his wife and children.
Despite all this, maleness has always maintained its superiority over femininity in the Jewish faith. The birth of a male child is celebrated, while the birth of a female is denigrated in the Talmud.
Other aspects of various writings in the Jewish canon helped to reinforce the woman’s role as secondary to man. Some of these writings are found in the Laws given by Yahweh to Moses at Sinai (Genesis 20 and 21), and as the story of the Levite’s mistress (Judges 19), both of these stories relate women to being the property of men. In the Jewish tradition a marriage is simply a transfer of property from father to husband. Going even further, the Talmud which is the most influential book regarding women’s status, contains various unfounded suspicions and superstitions against women. One could form the view that women were dangerous to the social order outside of accepted institutions. Women were considered “holy” and “sanctified” in the institute of marriage and unclean and impure when not.
This impurity is reflected in the niddah, or the Jewish rules regarding menstruation. These rules strongly emphasize that men avoid the uncleanliness of the menstruation and the blood of childbirth. These rules by equating the uncleanliness of these natural functions of the woman also equate women with uncleanliness. Other conditions that also reinforce that equation are regulations against sexual contact, the prohibition of women in temples except for certain allowable times, as well as ritual cleansings that are still observed to this day in Orthodox Judaism.
In the Talmud, there are 613 obligations for men in the practice of the Hebrew faith, while there are only three for women. This great difference in the obligations, or roles or duties between women and men reflects the discouragement of the male dominated religion to have women remain out of the participation and development of the religion. Women are not required to attend temple services nor are they encouraged to study the literature of the Jewish faith due to the expectation of women to remain in the home.
In regards to marriage, a woman’s permission was necessary to be wed, but in the case of divorce, it could only be granted due to some action by the husband. It was easy for the husband to obtain a divorce while for the wife it was much more difficult. If a woman had good grounds for divorce such as the husband’s impotence or infidelity, she could only approach the rabbi to persuade the husband for a divorce. This was as much power that the woman had over herself in regards to marriage. If a woman was successful in being granted a divorce by the male dominated power structure, only then was she free to remarry. Other wise a woman was only a prisoner to the whims of her marital situation. This is still practiced today is some parts of the Jewish community across the world.
Jewish women today enjoy much more freedom due to the deeper appreciation and enlightenment of our modern society. It is only in the past few centuries that women have been able to be in a position to counter the negative stereotypes and play a more equal part in the world.
From the history of both the Jewish and Hindu religions, as well as similar trends in others, reveals a possible insight into the true nature of man. Are we somehow biologically programmed to follow certain patterns in forming our sciences, our religions, our society’s values? If humanity is not on the path to changing this cyclical trend of history then we are presently in the midst of one of the stages of this cycle. It is necessary for the survival of peace among men on this earth that we evolve to allow women to maintain their role of equality alongside man.
Works Cited:
Ellwood, Robert S., McGraw, Barbara A. Many Peoples, Many Faiths Pearson Education, 2009
Women: 85
Again, revision would help. The details on both Hinduism and Judaism are excellent, though there is a tendency to use lengthy quotes here too. develop a thesis that will indicate that you are comparing these two particular religions on this issue.
