Gender in the Making of Pious Subjectivity
This paper explicates Gülen’s views on gender and compares his gender ideals with how women in the movement do and undo gender experientially. Gülen’s perspective regarding women is founded on a clear definition of fıtrat (natural disposition). Gülen stresses that women and men have their own functi...
| Published in: | Research in the social scientific study of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2020
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| In: |
Research in the social scientific study of religion
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| Further subjects: | B
Cultural sciences
B Religious sociology B Social sciences B Religionspsycholigie B Religionswissenschaften B Religion & Gesellschaft B Gender studies |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This paper explicates Gülen’s views on gender and compares his gender ideals with how women in the movement do and undo gender experientially. Gülen’s perspective regarding women is founded on a clear definition of fıtrat (natural disposition). Gülen stresses that women and men have their own functions and that they complement one another within an organic unity designed by God. From this perspective, Gülen constructs a hierarchically structured pious sociality that is not dependent on male/female distinction as men and women are equal in how they relate to Allah. Borrowing from Hochschild (1989) - for women in this "economy of gratitude" - it is insignificant who performs what "job" to please Allah through movement work, because it is up to Allah to decide who ends up where in the Hereafter. In her work on women’s labor in Turkey, White (2004) analyzes the construction of a social identity around, and its expression through a web of mutual support. White contends that, as women’s earnings for labor are far below the level necessary for survival, individual needs are met by the group thus creating an "economy of indebtedness". Similarly, women are engaged in the construction of networks that give access to labor, goods, money, useful information, partners in marriage and other necessities. An "economy of gratitude" is integrated with an "economy of indebtedness" to maintain the organizational structure of the movement. While an economy of gratitude is more concerned with internal states or the intentionality of participants, an economy of indebtedness is primarily concerned with establishing relations based on obligation and reciprocity that bind individuals to each other and as a group. Through 31 formal interviews and numerous other informal interviews in an Eastern city in the US, I demonstrate the movement operates within an economy of indebtedness, thereby reproducing gender differences in terms of opportunity hoarding (Tilly 1998), unequal access, and gendered work. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Research in the social scientific study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/9789004443969_022 |