God, Gender, and Power: How Women Reclaim Spiritual Authority and Challenge Religious Patriarchy

Legislating conduct through religious beliefs or spiritual authority is not new. Throughout history, religious beliefs and/or spiritual authority have served to either uphold social norms or endorse patriarchal ideals that have silenced all but a few of the voices of women (Ruether, 1983). Because men represent God in virtually all faith communities and men lead religious institutions, it creates a faith-based theological construct in which following male authority is deemed to fulfil God’s will (Woodhead, 2007).

Here, combining gender and power with belief, spiritual leaders can manipulate tradition and doctrine to disregard the experiences of women, silence women, and maintain control over women. In this way, if such manipulation is done purposely and consistently, it serves as a form of gaslighting. Framing men as spiritually appropriate authority figures and magnifying women’s resistance to disobeying God distorts the faith of the perpetrator of harmful doctrines that carry the weight of authority unto them. Injustice to women by delegitimising women’s trauma, denying them autonomy, and ultimately, an unfettered sense of worth in various faith spaces.

The Divine Excuse: How “God’s Will” Becomes a Tool of Control

Historically, the notion of “God’s will” has been used to justify authority (Fiorenza, 1983). In the context of ‘God’s will’, particularly in religious frameworks of hierarchical power and rigid gender constructs, God’s will mediates clearly the space between permission and prohibition. When a spiritual leader declares that men are divinely appointed to lead the ministry and the household, with women submitting to that order, gender inequality is constructed as a sacred and unchangeable order rather than a cultural construct.

Silencing Resistance Through Spiritual Obedience

In this frame, simply questioning unfair treatment is seen as challenging God, and obedience is rendered unquestionable. The frame ‘in God’s will’ becomes a “spiritual override” for complying with doctrine, silencing dissent, justifying abusive conduct, and evading critical thinking (Keller, 2002).

Rather than a call to equality or social justice when women were marginalised or controlled, leaders would instead speak about submitting to authority, having patience, and waiting for God’s time. Even with cases of emotional or spiritual abuse, the focus was always on forgiveness and authority rather than accountability or healing.

Religion can protect the operation of human-defined hierarchies as divine will and thereby defend itself against criticism. “God’s Will” becomes not only an article of faith but a source of control that disempowers women in terms of voice and agency in the name of faith (Sjoberg, 2021).

Twisting Scripture: Gendered Readings That Silence Women

Sacred texts from various religious traditions are typically interpreted as patriarchal texts that advance male authority while subordinating women, interpreting gender hierarchies as divinely ordained instead of socially constructed (Trible, 1978). Religious leaders often prioritise texts promoting female subordination while overlooking those that affirm women’s equality, dignity, and spiritual authority.

When doctrine is utilised to enforce gender-based limitations, it can silence objections through the framing of resistance as defiance of divine expectation. Women who contest traditions framed as doctrine may be referred to as creating disruption or as spiritually immature, placing them within a framework that causes self-doubt and oppression—what is often called spiritual gaslighting (Neuger, 2001).

Yet, critical readings of religious texts indicate that many roles described as “gender roles” are more the product of socially constraining adherence to tradition than of religious or theological accuracy (Barlas, 2002).

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Faith as Gaslight: When Spiritual Guidance Becomes Psychological Manipulation

Faith can be wielded as a tool of psychological manipulation when spiritual counsel is used to distort realities, disavow experience, and require compliance with gendered power. If leaders claim that male authority, female submission, or silence are divinely mandated. Women may begin to doubt their own perceptions, feelings, and thoughts when these conflict with doctrine.

This kind of manipulation is a form of gaslighting, which Dunn (2019) describes as “a pattern of behaviour in which one person presents false information that leads another person to doubt his/her own memory, perception, or judgment” (p. 169). For example, suppose a woman feels injustice in her place in the home or in the church. In that case, she is likely to be told she is a woman of little faith, in rebellion, or needs “spiritual covering,” thus derailing focus from social justice issues into the manageable territory of private spiritual malaise.

Spiritual gaslighting frequently utilises absolute assertions like “God told me,” “this is biblical,” and “you submit to your authority” that stifle inquiry and value obedience over discernment. It reframes experiences like doubt, pain, or anger as sinful while portraying blind faith as virtuous. Survivors are often urged to forgive, stay silent, or pray harder instead of seeking justice and support, fostering isolation and dependency.

Because faith groups often act as primary sources of belonging, challenging such teaching can feel like risking ostracism and spiritual condemnation. When spiritual authority privileges doctrine over lived experience, it stops being guidance and becomes control. Genuine spiritual counsel should build capacity for self-worth and critical thinking, not tear them down.

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Breaking the Cycle: Women Who Challenge Religious Patriarchy

Since ancient times, women have fought against religious patriarchy with courageous and quiet conviction, refusing to accept silence or subordination as spiritual virtue. Women have re-interpreted sacred texts, stepped into leadership roles, and created alternative communities. Developed new understandings of their dignity and agency, often in very conservative religious structures. These women’s efforts demonstrate how the distance between the divine ideal and human-made hierarchies can be shortened, how faith can be liberating and not controlling (Gross, 1993).

Faith-Based Feminism: Global Movements Reshaping Tradition

For instance, in Islam, Asma Barlas (2002) has suggested that questions of the Qur’an must be feminist, and those reading it in a patriarchal manner are distorting the text’s egalitarian message. Likewise, in India, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan is advocating for legal reform in their personal laws, vehemently challenging practices like triple talaq, and doing so based on their faith (BMMA, 2016).

In Christianity, many women were literally telling others and their fellow clergy that to have true spiritual integrity. They had to leave institutions that equate maleness with divinity. Others, like the Reverend and Bishop Barbara C. Harris in the Episcopal Church, have broken institutional glass ceilings. Each woman, ordained to the office with every epithet of outrage (that she was not an apprentice or simply promoted from lay person), stepped into the highest office to prove women could be ordained (Konieczny, 2013).

In Buddhism, for example, Rita Gross’s critiques have challenged the marginalisation of women in many monastic traditions and opened up possibilities for spaces where women’s spiritual authority is recognised and cultivated. These women—and many, many more—show that resistance inside of religion is not denial of faith, but a reclamation of it. They show that spiritual belief can drive justice, and that the quest for equality is not secular, but sacred.

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Reclaiming Belief: Toward a Feminist Spirituality

When we reclaim belief, we convert spirituality into agency; we create spirituality as agency over our lives, and not as agency over us. Womanist and mujerista theologies are grounded in the lived experiences of women of colour, blending spiritual practice with resistance to racism and oppression (Isasi-Díaz, 1996). Feminist spirituality has a similar goal in calling people’s attention to the injustice of patriarchy and its oppression of women of all faiths. Feminist theology is the act of feminist spirituality that proposes that women, together and in their own ways, can reclaim ritual, re-read sacred texts, and build community.

For examples, Jewish feminists have reclaimed ritual by highlighting the importance of women’s roles in ritual; Christian theologians and thinkers, such as Rosemary Radford Ruether, express their feminist spirituality by articulating that love requires the dismantling of domination; but also through the act of liberation, and the becoming of individuals who will restore power to all decent individuals, regardless of gender.

Feminist spirituality does not reject religion but argues for a reclamation of religion’s most essential truths—dignity, truth, and compassion. It asserts the sacred is not gendered or male-dominated or distant from women—they are the sacred. When they speak their truth, worship becomes meaningful and powerful. Feminist spirituality calls for liberating faith, not silencing, that privileges both God and self.

Conclusion: Transforming Faith Into Liberation

Patriarchy has long upheld control within religious traditions by silencing women’s voices and disguising power and dominance as divine will. Yet, women across cultures and faiths are reclaiming their spiritual authority by using faith traditions to challenge oppressive physical or conceptual doctrines, reinterpret sacred texts, and build more just and inclusive belief systems.

From feminist theology to activist organising, women are challenging oppressive structures by exposing the difference between religion as a tool of control and spirituality as a path to liberation. Women are reclaiming faith by choosing conscience over compliance, equality over hierarchy, and truth over tradition. Women are not just changing religion; they are changing what it means to believe.

FAQs

1. Is following a male religious authority the same as following God?

Not necessarily. Not all traditions make a distinction between divine will and human authority. Questioning a leader isn’t questioning God; it can be an essential step in safeguarding one’s dignity and spirit. 

2. How do I know when ‘spiritual direction’ crosses the line into manipulation?

If “guidance” ignores lived experiences, silences concerns, or demands blind obedience, it shifts from spiritual care to control. Healthy faith leadership offers autonomy and discernment, not dependency and fear. 

3. Why do women often prefer to blame themselves rather than to believe they are in the grips of harmful teachings?

Gaslighting works by making women distrust their perception. Teachings that pathologise pain or resistance and frame it as weakness, sin, or a “test of faith” force women to blame themselves rather than question authority. 

4. Is it possible to be a person of faith while discarding patriarchal interpretations?

Yes! Women across various traditions are reinterpreting sacred texts, reclaiming rituals. Creating communities that uphold their rights and equality with men. Faith can remain strong, even as one dismisses artificial hierarchies that distort it.