How far do religious organisations and religious beliefs maintain these systems of inequality which disadvantage women.

... How far do religious organisations and religious beliefs maintain these systems of inequality which disadvantage women. Women have not always been subordinate to men where religion is concerned. In fact until about 4,000 years ago the opposite appeared to be so. Large numbers of images of naked, pregnant mother, goddess figures have been uncovered by archaeologists. In the days when people worshipped the gods of nature, the female sex was seen as closer to nature. They represented the mysteries of life and fertility. As Armstrong (1993) put "The Earth produced plants and nourished...the mysteries creativity of the female sex." Armstrong argues that male aggression occurred by the invasion of these societies by more male dominated cultures from the Northern Hemisphere and Middle East, needed a patriarchal rational in order to justify such behaviour. Male Gods became increasingly important, introducing a more aggressive spirituality. Although there is only one God for most contemporary

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