Gender oppression and Pentecostal Christian religion: an exploration of the position of Africa migrant married women in Durban.
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Date
2022
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Abstract
Discourses about oppression against women are linked to different factors. Against this
background, this study explored the nexus between gender, religion, migration, and
patriarchy in a context of black migrant women living in Durban, South Africa.
Accordingly, this study argues that Pentecostal hermeneutics is an incubator for subtle
oppression against married women. Although the church has been presented as a place for
liberation, it is still a place where patriarchal values thrive. The study also explored the
gender ideologies associated with migration, as the women found themselves in a new
gender regime as it differs from their previous gendered lives; as such they were faced with
gender-specific problems and gender roles that challenged their quality of life and selfidentity.
It became more complicated as these women’s experience of gender oppression in
their marriage affects their self-esteem and they continue to contend with these gender
challenges, and they respond differently as well, either to adapt or to resist patriarchal
values.
To this end, the study adopted a qualitative research methodology to explore the lived
experiences of black migrant women on gender oppression through the lens of Pentecostal
Christian religion. It presents the key narrative of these women’s experience of oppression
to gain an insight into the role of Pentecostal churches in the establishment of women’s
identity. Drawing from the arguments of selected socio-religion scholars, this study
advances the argument that African women across traditional African cultures and history
adopt various strategies and ideas for circumventing and negotiating patriarchal structures
and thus gain a position of significance within familial and intimate terrains. In this
research, the theoretical arguments of social constructionism, gendered geographies of
power and Nego-feminism were deployed to examine the nature of gender oppression in
transnational spaces and how they negotiate their space for shared autonomy in marriage.
This study discovered that too little attention has been paid to the role of Pentecostal
Christian religious teachings and the interpretation of the Bible in shaping power relations,
oppression, and its corresponding effect on women’s identity within marriages. Further
findings are that negotiation, compromise, food and sexual activities are strategies adopted
by these women to influence the power dynamics of their households.
Description
Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.