Synopses & Reviews
What does it mean to be a religious conservative, particularly for women, in America today? While it appears that people are returning to conservative religion because they are fed up with the excesses of liberalism, including feminism, a closer look at the lives of religious conservatives reveals a more complex reality. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research in Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant communities, Christel Manning explores the diversity among women who have returned to tradition. Arguing that America has undergone profound cultural and economic changes in the last thirty years, which create tension between women's lives and traditional gender roles, she demonstrates that conservative Catholics, Orthodox Jews, and Evangelical Protestants negotiate those tensions in different ways. Manning also shows that women in conservative religious communities share many of the same concerns as secular women.Manning looks at how the religious communities profiled have been influenced by feminist values and describes the ways in which these women negotiate gender roles at work, religious services, and at home. She explains how they deal with the inconsistencies created by their attempts to integrate feminist and traditionalist norms. In highly accessible prose, Manning examines their attitudes towards the feminist movement, its impact on American culture, and the extent to which the women seek to resist it. God Gave Us the Right explains how these different views of feminism reflect the diverse theologies and historical experiences of the three communities.
Synopsis
What does it mean to be a religious conservative, particularly for a woman, in America today? Drawing on two years of ethnographic research in Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish communities, Christel Manning explores the diversity of views among women who have returned to tradition. Arguing that America has undergone profound cultural and economic changes in the last thirty years--changes that have created tension between women's lives and traditional gender roles--she demonstrates that conservative Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, and Orthodox Jews negotiate those tensions in a variety of ways. Manning explains how they deal with the contradictions arising from their attempts to integrate feminist and traditionalist norms. The comparative kaleidoscope that Manning presents of these women's views on feminism, however, shows them to be deeply rooted in the diverse theologies and historical experiences of their communities.
Christel Manning on PowellsBooks.Blog
Americans, especially young people, are leaving religion in record numbers. There are now more
Nones than there are Catholics in the U.S. population, and one third of those under 30 say they have no religion. Unlike the baby boomers who...
Read More»