Religion and Gender Dynamics in Latin American Societies

ANA LOURDES SUAREZ

The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Gender and Society

Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

Lugar: Londres - Nueva York; Año: 2022; p. 443 - 456

Exploring the relationship between religious phenomena and gender dynamics in Latin Americancountries sheds light on the societies? cultural heritage and continuity, as well as on the means by which traditional forms of social organization are maintained and transformed. This relationship challenges long-standing institutions and drives the creation of new ones to either promote or resist changes.The first part of this chapter will focus on one of the long-standing institutions in LatinAmerica: the Catholic Church. It will address how female Church leaders have been challengedby understandings of gender roles within this institution that persist in the prohibition uponordaining women for pastoral leadership, in closing up leading roles for them, and in controllingdifferent aspects of their lives. The landscape of ?women religious? (sisters/nuns), their ministries,social impact, and female subjectivity construction within the framework of a patriarchalinstitution, relates to broader gender dynamics in Latin American societies. Both transformativeand conservative forces amongst high-profile Catholic women will be addressed to illustratetensions in religious- and gender-identity construction in the largest countries of the region.Latin American countries are undergoing a deep process of religious reconfiguration, wherereligious pluralism is increasingly noticeable. The second part of the chapter will address changesin religious reconfiguration and in gender dynamics, how they affect each other and impact bothreligious identity construction and resistance. Modernity has changed Latin America in manyways; however, the religious landscape remains vibrant. The ongoing interaction between modernityand religion in Latin American does not result in the diminishment of religiosity, whichsubsequently accounts for what some scholars define as an ?enchanted modernity? (Morello,Romero, Rabbia, & Da Costa, 2017). Theorizing the relationships between religious/spiritualand cultural meaning systems and women?s agency allows for an understanding of women?s reasons to keep on struggling for their own, their families?, and their communities? well-being.