Revising Religious History, Revisiting Women's Role

Author: Raam Wong

We're all familiar with the "church lady" stereotype: the faithful organizer of suppers and pageants, she never misses a Sunday. Until recent reforms, Jewish women were traditionally relegated to the back of the synagogue. In news reports following the September terrorist attacks, countless images of Muslim women concealed by burkas have appeared in both print publications and on television. All these images contribute to the popular misconception that women are invariably in the background of religious life. Middlebury College's Charles P. Scott Symposium, conducted from Jan. 14 to 18, unveiled and discussed the development of women's role in religion.

Professor of Sociology and Religion E. Burke Rochford organized this year's symposium in conjunction with four Winter Term courses pertaining to the topic of women in religion. "I think the symposium is important for the College community because these issues are current and significant," Rochford remarked. By considering the "women question," he explained, one learns a great deal about the state of contemporary religion and modern culture.

In light of recent events in Afghanistan, the issue of women in religion has become a particularly important area of inquiry. "In opposing gender equality, more conservative religious groups are signaling their opposition and seeking to draw boundaries between themselves and mainstream culture," Rochford commented. "We see images from Afghanistan with women covered [with burkas] and we are left to wonder why. We see the [World] Trade Center attacked and wonder what is at stake for those who commit such acts of violence? While there are many interconnected issues, the question of women and their place in society is clearly one part of the explanation."

Rochford's own research on the Hare Krishna movement also provided inspiration for the symposium's topic. "I have been trying to trace the rise of women's consciousness and mobilization as well as the backlash from the more fundamentalist elements of the Krishna movement," Rochford said. "Here in the midst of a very conservative religion we see the rise of an active, and in many ways successful, women's movement."

Several religious organizations in the United States now embrace gender equality, with increasing numbers of women taking leadership roles in their congregations. The diverse group of speakers at the Scott Symposium — from local clergy to women's studies and religion professors — addressed both the contemporary and historical importance of women in religion. "For some, the idea that women have been a major force in religious history is news," Rochford noted.

The symposium began on Monday Jan. 14 with a community forum entitled "Redefining Women of the Spirit: Reflections on Women in Religious Life." Members of the interdenominational panel included Catherine Nichols of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Middlebury, Johanna Nichols of the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, Father John McDermott of the Catholic Center at the University of Vermont, Jill Colley of Vergennes United Methodist Church and Ira Schiffer, associate chaplain of Middlebury College and rabbi of Havurah Addison County.

An enthusiastic audience of students and community members, from ages 18 to 80, crowded into the Robert A. Jones '59 House. This first event set the tone for the symposium, seeking to question and discuss how women have been treated by different faiths over time and how ordained women are adjusting to their new role as leaders.

"The panel was a great way to start off the symposium," Sarah Goodwin '04 commented. "Each religion has its own story of how women broke into leadership roles. It was fascinating to hear personal accounts from people who participated and observed women who had such a strong influence on their religious groups."

Stirred by the first panel, I next attended a powerful talk given by Ann Braude, director of the Women's Studies in Religion program and senior lecturer in American religious history at the Harvard Divinity School. Braude's lecture, entitled "Women's History IS Religious History," grappled with the enduring paradox of women's numerical dominance in organized religion versus their exclusion from power.

Braude called attention to the irony of religious history. "Women have made American religion possible through participation at many levels, but that doesn't mean women have had power," she said. Referring to Spiritualism, a popular female-driven movement of the mid-19th century, Braude demonstrated that women have, in fact, played a pivotal role in shaping American religious history. Many such important instances of female leadership in religion have disturbingly fallen into obscurity. Braude concluded that our lack of attention to women's history itself has generated a version of American religious history which fails to give proper credit to female leaders.

The symposium continued with a talk by Paula Nesbitt on Christianity in America, as well as a discussion about "The Reframing of American Judaism," led by Karla Goldman, Historian-in-Residence at the Jewish Women's Archive. Rita Gross, professor of religion at the University of Wisconsin, gave a lecture on Buddhism and gender.

"From what I can tell the response to the symposium has been uniformly positive," Rochford said. "I think many students were largely unaware of the issues that were discussed by our speakers." The symposium compelled students to expand their horizons during our notoriously "interdisciplinary" Winter Term. For me, Braude's words best conveyed the message of the symposium: "We must learn to retell the stories of our own history."