Gender in the Discursive Practices of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Former East Germany

Dados Bibliográficos

ID18965136
AutoresM Rajtar (0000-0002-3807-1547, University of Gdańsk, autor correspondente)
Ano2011
Volume58
Fascículo2
Páginas260-270
Data de publicação2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Compass (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0037-7686 • E-ISSN: 1461-7404
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0037768611402617
OpenAlexW2136078313
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas15

The author analyzes the construction of gender and gender roles among the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the former East Germany. From a religious point of view, wives and women in general are subordinate to their husbands, fathers, etc. Within a family and in congregations men are expected to “take the lead” and are responsible for their wives and children. In the former German Democratic Republic this religious discourse competed with the egalitarian and secular discourse of the socialist state, which emphasized the necessity for women to work and the importance of public childcare. Thus, the author addresses the question: how and to what extent did this official state discourse influence the Witnesses’ discursive practices on gender during socialism and until the present day? The author has based her article on extensive ethnographic fieldwork on the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Saxony, eastern Germany

Communism · Democracy · Ethnography · Gender equality · German · Political science · Politics · Public discourse · Socialism · Sociology · State (computer science) · Anthropology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law