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Women and Religion: Global Lives in Focus

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Women and Religion: Global Lives in Focus

 

Women and Religion: Global Lives in Focus

Chapter Outline

Thank you for contributing to Women and Religion: Global Lives in Focus, a volume in Women and Society around the World series! Volumes in this series will encompass a global view of contemporary women, with chapters designed to focus on each world region. Regions to be discussed include North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and Oceania. While your chapters will discuss each region in general, specific examples of key traditions and customs will help to shed light on cultural nuances among countries within each region.  Discuss the region broadly, but use specific examples to highlight key topics and events. Readers should be able to make cross-cultural comparisons, learning how views of women change from culture to culture, and how and why women face issues that men do not. 

Part I:

Women in the religions of the region (include beliefs that may be specific to the religion in that specific area, but don’t offer a general overview of the religion or its beliefs about women. That will be done in the introduction).

  • Overview of women in religions in the region, including identifying religions in the region, statistics about practitioners, major issues for women in religions in the region
  • Women in Buddhism in the region (some of these sections may be omitted if the religion is not practiced in the region in any significant sense)
  • Women in Christianity in the region
  • Women in Hinduism in the region
  • Women in Islam in the region
  • Women in Judaism in the region
  • Women in other religions in the region (this will vary depending on the region, for example Jainism in South and South East Asia or Wicca/neo-paganism in North America)
  • Women in indigenous religions in the region
  • Women in New Religious Movements in the region

Part II:

Issues of religion for women in the region (these will be comparative across the religions in the region). Be sure to address ways religions are simultaneously oppressive and empowering to women in the region.

  • Women in religious leadership in the region
  • Gendered religious practices in the region
  • Women in sacred texts in the region
  • LGBTQ people and issues in religions in the region
  • Women at the intersection of religion and politics in the region
  • The impact/legacy of Christian missionaries on the colonial project in the region, particularly as it affects women
  • Religious violence against women
  • Women’s resistance to religious oppression
  • Feminist theologies in the region

General Notes

General notes:

  • Be specific to your region and to specific cultures/nations/peoples within it.
  • Be narrative. Tell stories about people, but avoid using first person stories (i.e. do not say “While I was doing fieldwork in Vietnam, I met a woman who….”). Think of your chapter as a story of women in religions in that region (though not the definitive story, of course).
  • Give historical context as needed, but don’t write a history of the religion.
  • Remember your audience—high school and early college students. Don’t use jargon. Don’t over-theorize. Write simply and clearly. Problematize but don’t over-complicate. Audience. Audience. Audience.
  • Highlight and define important terms, again, specific to the region rather than the religion more generally.
  • Follow the outline. If you want to deviate, contact the editor and negotiate a change before you make it.
  • If appropriate offer comparisons to other regions, but keep it short. We can reference the other chapters where it would be helpful.
  • DO avoid bias, statements of opinion, and personal sentiments.
  • DO rely on verifiable facts and accepted interpretations of events.
  • DO acknowledge differences of opinion or uncertainty.
  • DO cite all direct quotations, statistics, and any potentially controversial statements. References must be in the Chicago Manual of Style author-date format.
  • DO conclude each chapter with a list of References of the cited material. Ask your editor if you need some guidance on using Chicago style.
  • DO make sure your chapter is approximately 10,000 words. DON’T go far over or under the target word count for your chapter (10,000 words).
  • DON’T assume that readers are familiar with the topic. Provide background, and give brief explanations of terms, persons, places, events, etc.
  • DON’T write as if this were for an academic journal. Avoid large numbers of references and references to upper-level and specialized sources.
  • DON’T write in the first person.
  • DON’T use footnotes, endnotes, MLA, or APA.

Editor Contact

General Editor Susan Shaw, SShaw@oregonstate.edu