Religious Power, the State, Women's Rights, and Family Law

Abstract

Family law is an essential dimension of women's citizenship in the modern state. The rights established in family law shape women's agency and autonomy; they also regulate access to basic resources—such as land, income, and education—that determine a citizen's ability to earn a living independently, among other life chances (Agarwal 1994; Deere and León 2001; Kabeer 1994; Okin 1989; World Bank 2012). Yet family law is a notorious site of sex inequality, historically and in the present. Equal rights enjoyed by women in national constitutions are often contradicted by family and civil codes that subordinate women to the decisions of their husbands and fathers. In the early 21st century, family law in a significant number of countries discriminated against women, denying them the rights held by men and contributing to their disadvantaged social positions.

Acculturation, decoupling, or both? Migration’s impact on the linkage between religiosity and gender equality attitudes

“…This means religion loses its grip on people's attitudes in the more secular societies, whereby religion becomes more private and gets a symbolic function that demarcates groups, but that dictates other values less strongly Diehl, Koenig, and Ruckdeschel 2009). And as people are confronted with a multitude of opinions through social interaction, democratic signalling (Tétreault, Meyer, and Rizzo 2009), freedom of press (Zakarriya 2014), and more progressive family laws (Htun and Weldon 2015). This causes them to rethink or (un)consciously adjust their stance on gender equality and adapt to a more liberal point of view.…”

The anticipatory politics of homophobia: explaining constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in post-communist Europe

“…Such access, in turn, is a function of a church's moral authority, or identification of that church with the national interest. For example, whether family law discriminates against women appears to be related to the institutionalisation of religious authority (Htun and Weldon 2015). Scholars have documented religious involvement with LGBTI-related in places as far apart as Iran (Korycki and Nasirzadeh 2013), Romania (Turcescu and Stan 2005) and Zambia (Van Klinken 2013).…”

Revisiting gender equality at times of recession: a discussion of the strategies of gender and politics scholarship for dealing with equality

“…We understand gender as the constellation of institutions, including policies, laws, and norms, that constitute the roles, relations, and identities of women and men, and the feminine and the masculine, in a given context. Gender equality is In another article, Htun and Weldon (2015) analyse the impact of cross-national variation in phenomena, such as religion and state approach to religion, on gender equality in family law. Using a new index of sex equality in family law which assesses formal legal equality 'in thirteen areas, including marriage, property, parenting, inheritance, and divorce' the authors show a strong association between the political institutionalization of religious authority and sex equality in family law' (Htun and Weldon 2015: 452, 461).…”