Is secularism bad for women? Women and Religion in Multicultural Europe

How can societies secure religious women’s freedom and flourishing? What political arrangements offer the most to those who are religious and female? Frequently, the rights of women and religious people are pitted against each other. Laws, policies and practices are advocated that will help either those of faith, or women, but not both. There is disagreement about the role of religion in the fight for gender equality. Is religion an impediment to gender equality or can it enhance women’s wellbeing? Some argue that a form of political secularism is the best way to ensure gender equality. Allowing religious organisations political power enshrines gender inequality by giving state support to religious cultural practices that harm women, they say. Reflecting Okin’s 1997 essay ‘Is multiculturalism bad for women?’ they criticise multiculturalism as entrenching gender injustice. Other scholars consider secularism a bad political arrangement for religious people, because it excludes them from the political and public sphere. Taking forward discussions initiated by Okin and continued recently in works of scholars including Mahmood, Scott, Göle, Al-Ali, Cady and Fessenden, our workshops investigated this in European contexts. Our three workshops (at Coventry University, Uppsala University and Centre for Social Studies Lisbon) invited participants to turn Okin’s ‘Is multiculturalism bad for women?’ question on its head, debating the benefits and drawbacks of secularism. We considered whether secularism is the best political system to ensure gender equality and religious freedom, and if so, which form? If secularism is not the solution, how should governments work with and through religious people, without compromising women’s rights?

Findings were published in a 2017 special issue of the journal Social Compass