Gender Inequality Due to Culture and Religion Belief

The most prevailing kind of inequality that exists in this world is known as gender

inequality. There is a wide spread of gender inequality everywhere ranging from our daily

basis to somewhat larger scale as in religious belief. There are lot of factors which reinforce

this type of inequality, varying from nationality, culture, customs, historical foundation,

territory and even religion which exists in every culture and society. Religion has long been

the important element within every society since the ancient times. It sets up the foundation

and dominates in shaping the social value and social structure of the people in the society.

Customs and traditions are all fruits of religion. However, religion is also one of the factors

which influences gender inequality and social status in women. Different practices and

customary traditions and beliefs are adhered among different religions, which impact women

status differently. The distinctive roles between women and men are created through religion

and culture. Without being that direct and explicit, it can be observed that most religions

across the world uphold the dominance of men within the structure. The patriarchy is also

reflected through such values and beliefs that exist in the religion. It is apparent that god is

always represent by men. On the other hand, woman represents mother, who mostly exist in

household, rather than in rituals and in the general public (Klingorová, 2018). The fact that

religions respect women is true, but they yet do not promote the entire freedom of women, in

fact the equality with men. In Things Fall Apart, It is pointed out by Chinua Achebe that

culture and religion beliefs are factors which contribute to the harmfulness of gender

inequality.
 In Hinduism, culture and religion take a major part on the influence of gender

inequality. Hinduism is the Indian religion considered as one of the oldest religion in the

world. The religion is consisted mostly of the people from India and Nepal. However, there

are over 900 million disciples across the world, other than these two nations (Hinduism,

2014). Within Hinduism, it has long been known that females have been struggling for their

role and status in the society, religions and within the nation. According to the tradition, most

females are responsible for the domestic jobs and serve as the mother to the children and the

wife to her husband. Females have less role than men in the society. The role of women is

written in the Hindu books of law, which defines how women should act in the society as

well as in the family (Ham, 2008). This tradition is passed down since the ancient time from

their ancestors and are followed along until this very day. This initiates inequality toward

them, being limited by what they can or cannot do. As already stated, the major role of

women is to mainly take care of the household and look after the children. This is the same as

in the book, “Things Fall Apart.” An example of this can be found on page 40, which states “It

was not yet noon on the second day of the New Yam Festival. Ekwefi and her only daughter,

Ezinma, sat near the fireplace waiting for the water in the pot to boil.” This quote

demonstrates that women are in charge of all the routine within the household, in this case

cooking is pointed out. Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s second wife, along with her female child, Ezinma

is preparing to cook for Okonkwo. They are waiting patiently for the water to boil so that they

could cook food for Okonkwo. Moreover, it is stated in the book that after the food are laid

out, the females are also in charge of bringing the food to the man’s obi. This clearly

demonstrates the fact that women have to take good care of the domestic activity. Those who
do not would be beaten severely like Okonkwo’s youngest wife, Ojiugo. Based on Hinduism

the reason why women are only committed to those task is because men want to govern over

the power. It is revealed in the sacred book that there are times when women expose their

power by owning the duality of men and women. Therefore, this can be implying that men are

afraid that women would dominate the society and want them to be stationary by continuing

to run the household and taking care of children (Ham, 2008). Moreover, sometimes women

are not allowed to participate in the ritual events. For instance, women who are on their

period cycle are prohibited to enter kitchen and temples. They are viewed as unclean and

filthy and as well being isolated from other people. They can only return to their home and

family after their menstruation cycle (Culture and menstruation, 2018). Hence, the inequality

between men and women is shown through the form of culture initiated by religion.

In Buddhism, culture and religion act as a thrust which induce negative aspects like

gender inequality. Among over 4,200 religions that exist in this world, Buddhism is ranked in

the fourth place as for the world largest religion. It comprises of more than 520 million

followers, covering over 7% of the population in this world. The followers of Buddhism are

known as Buddhists. Various traditions, beliefs, rituals and practices significantly rely on

original teachings of Buddha and other Buddhist philosophies, which make up the religion

“Buddhism” as a whole (Buddhism, n.d.). Dating back to the sixth century B.C.E., when

Buddhism is initiated by Siddhartha Gautama, the religion has widely influence many

followers widely regardless of background; gender, age or social status. However, within the

religion, the role of women has still been in dispute. It is known that the basis of Buddhism

highly value equality and offer equality for both males and females in order to achieve
enlightenment and realization of Buddha. Nevertheless, there are still some rules that offer

unequal treatment as for the female followers. This rules include, being regulated by sterner

guidelines. It is said in Buddhist scripture that supplementary guidelines, the Eight

Garudhammas, are enforced on nuns, but not monks, in order for them to be accepted for

ordination. The rules impose women to pray respects to monk, enduring extra training and not

worship when there is no monk (Salgado 81-82) (Female Inequality in Buddhism, 2015).

It is also stated in Gethin 91 that women are impossible to achieve the highest level in the

religion, to become a Buddha. This is also the same as in the book Things Fall Apart, the

women in Umoufia cannot receive any titles. It is contrast to men who can receive as much

titles as they could and rank the highest position in the society. Hence, the women who are

known as inferior and stay below the social status, there are nothing that they can be honored

with. No achievement can be obtained by the women. They are not capable to bring any

dignity to themselves or even to the society. In the patriarchal society of Umoufia, there are

also things that can only be possessed by men like the yam plant. This is demonstrated by

“His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women's crops, like coco-yams,

beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man's crop.” (pg 23). From this, it suggests

that women like Okonkwo’s mother and sisters are only capable of growing weak, female

crops like the coco-yams, beans and cassava. They cannot grow Yam, which is known as the

king of crop, only suitable for great men. The another example of this is illustrated in page 33

, stating “Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one

harvest to another was a very great man indeed.” This implies that the king of crop, known as

“Yam” is a representation of manliness. Manliness or masculine power are only qualities own
by men. Women, who are certainly lack of these quality are not good enough to grow yam. It

is further said in the quote that men who can feed his family with a lot of yams are totally

known as the greatest. Therefore, women who are originally do not satisfy the quality set by

the society of men, and cannot plant yam at the first place, never will be able to be known as

the greatest like how men can. From this, it is pointed out that the culture Buddhism

resembles the culture of Igbo people. Moreover, in Buddhism, there additional regulations

given to women nuns make them become inferior to those of monks. Certain inequalities are

apparent. For instance, the monks should speak before nuns, eat before nuns, and sit ahead of

those nuns in ceremonies. Nuns cannot even participate in the high positions in any religious

ceremony. In Garudhhamas, it is also stated that nuns who serve in the highest position

among other nuns, the senior nuns should bow down to even a monk who has just been

ordained. The status between nuns and monks are unequal and would never be. An evidence

of this could be pointed out through the case in Taiwan. Although, nuns are considered as the

highest status in Taiwan, most of them still follow the Garuddhhamas rule of bowing to

monks. There only Master Yin shu and Master Xing Yun, two orthodox leader of Buddhist

sects, who show the rejection toward women inferiority to the public. Almost none of the

other countries do so, or support the equal rights between nuns and monks, or status of nuns

in Buddhism (Paudel & Dong, 2017). Once and for all, it is clear that women are left out in

certain participation and leadership roles in Buddhism, which is mostly composed of men. In

Buddhism, women are viewed as less important to men and have always been given minor

roles in the religion.

It is pointed out by Chinua Achebe that culture and religion beliefs are factors which

contribute to the harmfulness of gender inequality. As already mentioned in the introduction

earlier, that there are various factors which contribute to this form of inequality between men

and women. However, the most dominant element that are pointed culture and religious

beliefs. This is the same as in Thing Fall Apart. Culture is shaped by this strong faith of god

tied to the religion. It also lead to social standard, social status, certain value adhered by

people in the society. Together these factors heavily bring on the negative impact of gender

inequality. This is evident when the writer states “When did you become a shivering old

woman," Okonkwo asked himself, "you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor

in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added

a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.” (pg 56). From this

quote the exhibition of both social standard and social structure is demonstrated. In the village

of Umuofia which Okonkwo lives in, men should be strong and courageous. The standard of

men lies upon the quality of manliness and masculine power, which all men should have.

Those who express their emotions, and shows their vulnerability would be viewed as

weaklings. In this quote, Okonkwo is thinking about Ikemefuna. Every time Okonkwo is

reminded of the boy, he can’t help but to express his sadness and the feeling of guilty he had

for killing his son, Ikemefuna. He knows that his emotional disclosure is unacceptable and is

the quality of those weak men. Therefore, he compares himself to a “shivering old woman.”

This suggests that woman is known to be under men as in the status set by the Igbo society.

They are usually viewed as weak and ashamed, mainly because they are lack of those

manliness and masculine power which are expected to be possess by all men. Due to these

women are given with unequal treatment, which are unmerciful and dominated by force. This

is demonstrated by “There was nobody in the hut and the fireplace was cold. He walked back
to his obi to await Ojiugo's return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his

anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace…But Okonkwo was not the man to stop

beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess.” (pg 30). Despite the fact

the Ojiugo, Okonkwo’s third wife only visits her friend’s house and is late to make lunch for

Okonkwo, she is badly hurt by him. Even during week of peace where no one is allowed to

hurt others both physically and mentally through harsh words. Okonkwo ignores that and still

goes as far as breaking the rule to continue on beating his wife. Although Okonkwo has

broken the tradition of the clan, no crime is sentenced to him. Rather than getting heavily

punished for what he has done, Okonkwo just got blamed for it by the priest of the clan. On

the other hand, as for Ojiugo, who is the women in the clan, she is treated unjustly to the

point of being abused by force. She doesn’t even receive the right to be protected from

domestic violence. It is clear, therefore that gender inequality really does exist, women is

being neglected in the society and do not even receive the basic rights of human being.

In conclusion, Thing fall apart demonstrates that culture and religion beliefs are the

most significant factor which lead to negative impacts, specifically gender inequality. There

are such division between men and women and are also being treated unequally in different

religions. Although most religion I this world acknowledge that women should be respected

and value their role. However, they still don’t justify how women are supposed to be treated

and demolish their liberation in the society.

 References :

Buddhism. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism/

Culture and menstruation. (2018). Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_and_menstruation
Female Inequality in Buddhism. (2015). Retrieved from

https://sophia.smith.edu/blog/buddhistthought15/2015/02/15/women-in-buddhism/

Ham, V. (2008). WOMEN’S ROLE IN HINDUISM. Retrieved from

http://www.mahavidya.ca/2008/06/23/womens-roles-in-hinduism/

Hinduism. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/

Klingorová, K. (2015). Religion and gender inequality : The status of women in the societies of

world religions. Retrieved from

http://www.academia.edu/13490676/Religion_and_gender_inequality_The_status_of_women_

in_the_societies_of_world_religions

Paudel, A., Dong Q. (2017). The Discrimination of Women in Buddhism : An Ethical Analysis.

Retrieved from

https://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=75673