Boston University doctoral student, En-Chieh Chao, supervised by Dr. Robert Hefner, will investigate the impact of a transnational religious movement, Islamization, on normative gender roles in local, multi-religious contexts. The research will be carried out in central Java, Indonesia, where she will compare the movement's effects on women in three different types of religious organizations: traditionalist Muslim, reformist Muslim, and Christian. The expanding influence of normative religions has aroused interest in their gendered effects in many parts of the world. By examining both Christian and Muslim communities in a single society, this research will offer a new comparative perspective.
The researcher will employ a mix-methods approach. She will collect qualitative ethnographic information through participant-observation and intensive interviews, and also carry out a structured survey to collect quantitative data. The project's objectives include investigations of: (1) the gender norms promoted by different religious streams; (2) religious interpretations and legitimacy of gender equality; (3) the relation between gender and religious knowledge; and (4) women's personal experiences in various observable domains: economic, family, associational, and political.
The project is important because a comparative approach, focused on gendered dimensions of religious change, will contribute to both social scientific understanding of the relation between pluralism, gender, and religion, and to understanding the effects of these changes on women's lives. Supporting this project also contributes to graduate education.
