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+--- Thread: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? (/showthread.php?tid=1734)
Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - skunk - Dec 2 2025
Can a woman genuinely be feminist if shes also religious? What are your thoughts? Would it make a difference depending on the religion in question?
I lean towards no on this one but I want to hear other womens perspectives.
RE: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - LeftFem - Dec 2 2025
Depends on the religion imo, but I'd say for the three Abrahamic ones + Hinduism (The four I'm familiar with), no. The religion themselves are way too misogynistic for a woman to be a feminist while believing in them and being religious
I do think a casual follower who thinks they're a Christian/Muslim/Jew/Hindu can be a feminist, but they wouldn't be religious, or at the very least be completely unaware of what the religions actually entail.
RE: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - Persephone - Dec 2 2025
IMO - No, not really.
All organised religion is built on the oppression of women as a tenet, and a lot of "disorganised spirituality" (for lack of a better term that I can't recall right now) often promotes magical thinking, belief in "fate" or that your life is not fully in your control but instead (partially or otherwise) up to the cards/stars/planets/etc (very bad for revolution) and, imo worst of all, nature worship. Remember nature was your first oppressor! We should not have to plan our lives around when our hormones are going to drive us insane or bring us to our knees with pain and weakness. We deserve better.
Don't let any man tell you logic is theirs, or that therefore the absence of it is good just because they've associated it with them.
RE: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - Clover - Dec 2 2025
I'd say it depends. I'd probably personally have one part of me say "probably not" and then another part say "why does it matter if she's taking actions that helps women?"
If a woman is adamantly Abrahmic or one of the other major religions (which is like, most of them) that utilize women as "others", as tools to benefit men, as gendered beings before human beings, then I would say no. But then that's when the part of me that says "if she helps women, who cares" comes in. If an adamantly Christian woman helps women at a food bank or a domestic violence shelter, that's important and helps women. If a Muslim woman teaches girls mathematics and science, that's important and helps women. What does it matter then, if they have the label of "feminist" or not? That is how I view it.
If it is in terms of feminist analysis however, I won't lie, I am cautious and take whatever they espouse with a grain of salt. The Abrahamic religions, especially some of the Christian ones, like to put blame on women for things we don't deserve blame for, and encourge blind "forgiveness" in a way that sweeps the abusive behavior of men and the male class under the rug. That doesn't mean I won't listen to them, but I'm basically on "high alert" for analyizing how their takes are based in an indoctrination of male apologia or only in favor of utilizing feminist rhetoric to further their religion rather than liberate all women.
(Some religious women might find it difficult to leave their religion, usually due to societal pressure from local community or family that they depend on for survival; I generally don't consider these women "actually" religious, but on paper they are considered so. I assume this post isn't about them though.)
In regards to the more "nature based" religions, like Paganism and Wicca, as I understand it, many of them have been taken over and colonized by men, making them male-dominated/patriarchal. They also frequently rely on the concepts of the "divine feminine/divine masculine" which is such sexist gender bullshit. So those also get a "caution" in my book.
Dianic Tradition, on the other hand, so far as been the only "religion" (I'm not sure if it qualifies as one or not) that allows women to feel comfortable with themselves as they are, does not enforce sexist stereotypes, and encourages accepting the full lifecycle of a woman (as in, it accepts women actually age and don't just vanish after their 20's...). Disclaimer: this is just all that I know from Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries when there was a bookclub for it on Ovarit. If anyone's interested in that, I highly recommend giving the first few chapters a read as they're written from a more feminist lens (at some point the chapters go on to more into witch stuff, so up to the reader if they want to continue afterwards). The author of the book has been attempted to be "burned at the stake", if you will, by TRAs for being strict on her policy of not catering to TIMs.
I think what Persephone wrote was pretty interesting. I partially agree that "nature is our first oppressor," I honestly don't think I can even deny that, but part of me also believes nature is a more-or-less a "neutral force" on all living creatures, that we all are a part of, that men have utilized how it negatively impacts us to further their oppression of the female class. (Persephone, I am wondering, have you read the book by Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution? I haven't, but I understand it is about Firestone's case that women's oppression stems from their biological role in reproduction. I think you might like it.)
I tend to not criticize women who are into astrology, tarot, crystals, witchcraft, and so on. The only caveat would be if they espouse "divine feminine" rhetoric along with it, which is literally the same old sexist shit that Abrahamic religions push onto women to force them into the private spheres and "like it", just wrapped in a "witchy babe" aesthetic.
RE: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - skunk - Dec 2 2025
(Dec 2 2025, 1:18 PM)LeftFem Depends on the religion imo, but I'd say for the three Abrahamic ones + Hinduism (The four I'm familiar with), no. The religion themselves are way too misogynistic for a woman to be a feminist while believing in them and being religious
I do think a casual follower who thinks they're a Christian/Muslim/Jew/Hindu can be a feminist, but they wouldn't be religious, or at the very least be completely unaware of what the religions actually entail.
This is what I was thinking too, in terms of the primary organized religions in the world. To your second point, I was partly thinking about this because, living in America, I would say the majority of "Christian" women I've met would fall into the second category and therefore, for the most part, not really contradict any feminist beliefs. I.e. they believe in "God", seem to have some general belief in the concept of a Heaven and Hell but aren't really practicing Christians or particularly well versed in the actual teachings of Christianity or the bible. Almost more like they're just generally spiritual, but they're spirituality is very loosely based on Christianity.
RE: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - skunk - Dec 2 2025
Quote:If a woman is adamantly Abrahmic or one of the other major religions (which is like, most of them) that utilize women as "others", as tools to benefit men, as gendered beings before human beings, then I would say no. But then that's when the part of me that says "if she helps women, who cares" comes in. If an adamantly Christian woman helps women at a food bank or a domestic violence shelter, that's important and helps women. If a Muslim woman teaches girls mathematics and science, that's important and helps women. What does it matter then, if they have the label of "feminist" or not? That is how I view it.
That's a good point I hadn't really thought about. I agree that the most important thing here is if she helps girls and women or not. However, their faith could potentially lead them to both help and harm girls/women. Like the Christian woman volunteering at a food bank or domestic violence shelter. She could be helping women in need there, but go home and teach her daughters that a woman is meant to be the man's "helper" and essentially his property. Which is exactly the kind of rhetoric that can get women trapped in abusive relationships in the first place where they don't have the means to escape since they were taught to depend on the man. (Your second point goes into this a bit anyway). I guess it's not really the label that's important, but rather if they provide a net benefit to girls and women at the end of the day.
Quote:I tend to not criticize women who are into astrology, tarot, crystals, witchcraft, and so on. The only caveat would be if they espouse "divine feminine" rhetoric along with it, which is literally the same old sexist shit that Abrahamic religions push onto women to force them into the private spheres and "like it", just wrapped in a "witchy babe" aesthetic.
Yeah, I really dislike the divine feminine rhetoric for that exact reason. Sometimes I'm a little surprised they don't see it. But I noticed a lot of the women I know that got into that were raised religious. I think sometimes, it's difficult for people who were raised that way to fully let it go and they essentially wind up just jumping from one misogynistic belief system into a new one that's just wrapped up a little bit more nicely for them. But I can recognize that it's hard for me to relate since I was raised atheist.
RE: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - Elsacat - Dec 2 2025
Here's how I answered that over on Vexxed.
https://vexxed.org/o/WomensLiberation/6803/can-a-woman-be-a-feminist-and-religious/5abd8715-d0c7-4904-98da-a1d99ea690d7#comment-5abd8715-d0c7-4904-98da-a1d99ea690d7
Quote:Good question. As an example, how about a (theoretical) Muslim woman who still wears the hijab and prays to Mecca but also works to regain or retain rights for girls and women such as driving, going to school, holding certain jobs? I don't feel like I could say someone like that isn't a feminist, even though she is still practicing her religion.
RE: Can a woman be a feminist and religious? - YesYourNigel - Dec 2 2025
(Dec 2 2025, 1:42 PM)Persephone IMO - No, not really.
All organised religion is built on the oppression of women as a tenet, and a lot of "disorganised spirituality" (for lack of a better term that I can't recall right now) often promotes magical thinking, belief in "fate" or that your life is not fully in your control but instead (partially or otherwise) up to the cards/stars/planets/etc (very bad for revolution) and, imo worst of all, nature worship. Remember nature was your first oppressor! We should not have to plan our lives around when our hormones are going to drive us insane or bring us to our knees with pain and weakness. We deserve better.
Yeah I find that women are particularly succeptible to magical thinking due to a lack of control in their lives. I don't have a problem with magical thinking in and of itself but it's just so consistently used to distract women and to give them a false sense of empowerment.
I find the self-help stuff even worse in that regard. It's chock full of passive navel-gazey musings and usually pushes women into being even more understanding and emphatic and patient towards people who hurt and exploit them. The whole "turn the other cheek" thing. Which intersects with religion as well. I hate how this stuff just teaches women to internalise everything even more and to become doormats. I also cringe at just how encouraged women are to overthink feelings and emotions instead od obtaining more useful skills instead. If you feel like you lack any control you'd be better off learning how to fix your car or hit the gym.