Canadian Women Shaping Diasporic Religious Identities ed. by Becky R. Lee and Terry Tak-Ling Woo (review)

Feminists frequently look with suspicion at claims of agency put forward by women in religious organizations. Instead, they state that women's choices are limited by the patriarchal structures within those organizations. While there is some truth to these assertions, frequently women also creatively bargain and push the parameters of the religious spaces that they choose or find themselves in. Canadian Women Shaping Diasporic Religious Identities is a collection, edited by Becky R. Lee and Terry Tak-Ling Woo, that examines such negotiations. Examples of such negotiations in Newfoundland include religiously active women who drew upon the teachings of Catholic St. Gerrard to foster a sense of spiritual support in the 1970s (Marion Bowman) and articulation of religious rituals in ways that benefit women particularly as they recover their physical strength after childbirth (Bonnie Morgan). Focusing on English Canada, Becky Lee notes that Catholic women's participation in religious organizations provides spaces free of male interference, and enables them to imagine and create alternative roles for themselves within the faith that provides greater "opportunities for education, career and career advancement than are available to their secular counterparts."

Along with examples of the dominant religious groups, the collection also includes what it calls new religions in Canada. Women belonging to these traditions encounter various forms of patriarchal constrictions within their faith groups as well. Yet Hindu women in Canada do not appear to be as bound by male-centred rituals of homeland; instead, they feel free to reinterpret in ways that give women more power. This is particularly true among the Tamil groups who have a history of strong women connected to their sacred rituals.

Theosophy provides an interesting example in that it attracts powerful, self-determined women in an organization where almost all top executive positions are held by men who direct policy. At the same time, women's access to political and spiritual education in forums provided by theosophical organizations offer a more welcoming environment for non-traditional sexuality and politics as they strive for, and seek to, inhabit roles outside of those traditionally sanctioned for women.

Similarly, the Bahai Covenant seeks to safeguard the rights of women and minorities within the Bahai faith. The covenant speaks to the importance of creating forums for women where they develop their abilities and nurture their dreams. In addition, the Bahai notion of one God and equality for all aligns itself with views on spirituality among many First Nation communities where the Bahai is a growing faith tradition.

The desire for gender rights in various traditions and for equality in the theosophical and Bahai faith groups suggests that women leaders and activists have found faith platforms from which to live their lives more fully and with greater dignity, in some cases, pushing the gender envelope beyond what was frequently demanded by so-called secular feminists. Canadian Flora MacDonald Denison, a theosophist, provides an example. In the early part of the twentieth century, Denison "supported the accessibility of divorce, birth control, and even attacked the sanctity of the nuclear family." Despite the support for women's rights in many faith traditions, it appears that men have dominated positions of power within these organizations. Also, given the predominance of patriarchal control in our society, I wonder to what extent other women in various faith groups continue to live even those levels of equality as promised by their faith traditions. For example, I would be interested in knowing what mechanisms exist for enforcing this equality in the theosophical and Bahai traditions? What kinds of support are offered by various faith groups to women who have challenged the sexism and violence within their social and familial contexts?

The articles suggest that, while most of the women in the various faith communities question the lack of opportunities for women, they frequently do not challenge the traditional family, the lack of reproductive rights, and heternormativity. Moreover studies in this...