How Religion made me a Feminist

For a long time feminism has served as a kind of “F” word from which I hid in closets from. While my father from time to time warned me against being the “strong woman type” I found as I grew up, various factors including my parents, their religion and my keen interest in Black Studies pushed me towards feminism despite being exceedingly repressive to women. My rejection of what was expected of me as a woman is largely what shaped the feminist that I am becoming.

I became aware around the fourth grade that my assigned “gender” presented several limitations for me. At that time, the biggest wall was built by the constructs of my parents religion. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses. The religious services are organized so that each congregation has no single parishioner as in most churches. “Everyone” has the opportunity to be on stage and present prepared talks, based on biblical scripture, to the congregation. While men have several opportunities ranging from brief five minute talks to one hour lectures on Sundays, women could only give five minute presentations were they demonstrated how to use scriptures in everyday conversation through a skit with another woman . A woman speaking directly to the congregation and giving her interpretation was and still is unheard of. At the end of a talk presented by a woman, an elder would proceed to critique her publically on the errors she made and give her a grade.