The Effect of Philosophical and Linguistic Gender Biases on the Degradation of Women’s Status in Religion

Abstract

Gender equality, a prerequisite for the establishment of the oneness of humanity, remains largely unrealized, despite the struggles of the last one hundred and fifty years to attain such equality. The extreme slowness to eradicate the causes of inequality is at least partly due to discriminatory attitudes ingrained in linguistic styles and philosophical suppositions that have left their marks on human thought, behavior, social institutions, and religion. Gender inequality is a widespread phenomenon and its genesis hard to determine. Women’s rights have been universally undermined for countless centuries. While the underlying causes of depriving women of their rights and degrading their status may seem different in various parts of the globe, the similar effects they have produced indicate that the root causes must be the same. This article focuses on philosophical and linguistic gender-related biases and their effect on the degradation of women’s status in religion. It also offers suggestions for eradicating the causes of inequality in order to hasten world unity.