'Leadership' or 'Dialogue'? Women, Authority and Religious Change in a Netherlands Community

Abstract

This article is concerned with religion and gender in the Netherlands, in particular the growing involvement and importance of women. Employing a comparative, qualitative analysis of ‘orthodox’ and ‘ liberal’ Reformed Protestants and Catholics in one particular community, it not only analyses different religious rules and regulations that discriminate between ‘male’ and ‘female’ but also the way different female believers interpret religious beliefs, undertake religious practices and influence their churches, thereby transforming religion. Religion, traditionally associated with dominant (male) authorities, has been challenged by recent changes that encourage individualism and cause fragmentation and diversity. Rather than decline, religion may adapt and accommodate change in diverse ways. Women may be liberated by this change and be important agents in negotiation of different religious views and practices. The article examines these issues and explores what possibilities or problems, empowerments or disempowerments, such may pose for women and for religion in general.