Paper short abstract:

Religion provides the Baltic religious women with an agency personally, through family and community. Women identify the benefits of religion, but seldom question the conservative religious beliefs or offer more liberal interpretations, different from official religious doctrine.

Paper long abstract:

With the third wave of feminism, scholars restored the agency of religious women, rejecting idea that religion only oppresses women and religious women have a false consciousness, while arguing that the complexity of the relationship between gender and religion was overlooked. Still, religious women must search for the ways to cope with the conflicting demands of society and their own religion, others might struggle to reconcile the conservative religious beliefs and their more progressive personal attitudes, some might find content in the more liberal or feminist interpretations and living practices of their religion. It is especially valid for the Muslim women, when their identities and belonging are challenged when living in the non-Muslim societies.

The post-communist societies have been repeatedly characterized by “patriarchal renaissance”. The practicing religious women continue to face a pressure from society to pursue a lifestyle with more gender equality. In the Baltic countries, religious women do not face entirely the same dilemmas as in the more liberal western societies. In the latter, being religious is analysed as female choice and agency. In the former, being religious can be analysed also as complying with conservative social norms, except of Muslims, who face extra challenges.

The analysis reveals that religion provides religious with an agency personally, through family and community, but rarely through a career, which serves more as an area of personal autonomy, despite of religion. The degree and expression of agency provided by religion differs among three groups of women. Women identify the benefits of religion, but seldom question the conservative religious beliefs or offer more liberal interpretations, different from official religious doctrine.