Copyright © 2000 Lisa Lees / Contact Lisa
UN-GENDERING RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY -- HANDOUT
Lisa Lees, Wayne State University, 18 February 2000
Gender is so pervasive in society that seeing its effects can
be like trying to see the forest for the trees, when what is
important is the shape of the land on which the forest stands.
Careful: these questions are about gender, not about one's
role in society--one's social class--as man or woman.
1. Take a minute to think about your practice of religion,
the part you do with other people.
- Does gender influence how a particular person practices
your religion?
- Are these gender-based differences necessary or required?
Have they changed over time?
- In what ways do you feel the gender-based differences to
be positive or negative aspects of the practice of your
religion?
2. Now think about your spirituality, your private spirit
life, your personal relationship with your beliefs.
- Is gender a part of your spirituality? How?
- If so, is gender necessary to your spirituality?
- Are you comfortable with the part gender does or does
not play in your spirituality?
3. Returning to the analogy with which we began, think about
how the 'trees' (social class of man or woman) obscure the
'forest' (gender as human behavior) covering the 'ground'
(physical and biological difference between individuals)
which goes largely unnoticed. How would your religion or
spirituality change if it ignored social gender class and
became attuned to individual gender?
Copyright © 2000 Lisa Lees /
Contact Lisa