Religion and gender dynamics in latin american societies

Abstract

Introduction: Exploring the relationship between religious phenomena and gender dynamics in Latin American countries sheds light on the societies’ cultural heritage and continuity, as well as on the means by which traditional forms of social organization are maintained and transformed. This relationship challenges long-standing institutions and drives the creation of new ones to either promote or resist changes. The first part of this chapter will focus on one of the long-standing institutions in Latin America: the Catholic Church. It will address how female Church leaders have been challenged by understandings of gender roles within this institution that persist in the prohibition upon ordaining women for pastoral leadership, in closing up leading roles for them, and in controlling different aspects of their lives. The landscape of “women religious” (sisters/nuns), their ministries, social impact, and female subjectivity construction within the framework of a patriarchal institution, relates to broader gender dynamics in Latin American societies. Both transformative and conservative forces amongst high-profile Catholic women will be addressed to illustrate tensions in religious- and gender-identity construction in the largest countries of the region. Latin American countries are undergoing a deep process of religious reconfiguration, where religious pluralism is increasingly noticeable. The second part of the chapter will address changes in religious reconfiguration and in gender dynamics, how they affect each other and impact both religious identity construction and resistance. Modernity has changed Latin America in many ways; however, the religious landscape remains vibrant. The ongoing interaction between modernity and religion in Latin American does not result in the diminishment of religiosity, which subsequently accounts for what some scholars define as an “enchanted modernity” (Morello, Romero, Rabbia, & Da Costa, 2017). Theorizing the relationships between religious/spiritual and cultural meaning systems and women’s agency allows for an understanding of women’s reasons to keep on struggling for their own, their families’, and their communities’ well-being.