‘Women are their own worst enemies’

Female leaders of Pentecostal churches are accountable for the low status of women in their congregations as they continue to reinforce patriarchy while neglecting each other’s advancement, new research shows.

In a paper titled “The Status of Women in Pentecostal Churches in Zimbabwe”, Professor of Religion at the University of Zimbabwe Kudzai Biri said women were perpetuating oppressive patriarchal teachings.

For instance, Prof Biri said, female religious leaders were wont to pass on negative stereotypes of single women and single mothers.

Her study covered Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (Zaoga), one of Zimbabwe’s oldest Pentecostal churches, and draws from findings from the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, an umbrella body for Pentecostal denominations, church bodies and para-church organisations.

“Pentecostal women leaders are accountable to the low status of women in their respective movements.

“They are mostly blind to sociological and cultural realities and shifting paradigms and tend to blanket the experiences of women.

“It is women themselves, leaders playing a pivotal role that are responsible for emancipating themselves and not to blame men. It is in those women’s fora, without men that they perpetuate oppressive patriarchal teachings. Yet at the same time argue that they need to be empowered.

“Look at how married women leaders demonise single ladies and allow derogatory connotations, the naming system that is small houses, gold diggers etcetera. Yet they do not include men in these condemnations.

“Yet they are diverse women, different categories, economic status etc,” Prof Biri said.

While there have been efforts by Government and civic society to empower women, churches — where the gospel of “equality is preached before God” — seem to lag behind.

In some churches, women cannot be deacons, elders, pastors or priests; which Prof Biri noted as odd seeing as females often constituted the bulk of congregations.

“Economically women have been empowered. For example in Zaoga, through entrepreneurship programmes etcetera, but does economic empowerment translate to total empowerment?

“The gospel of unconditional submission is religiously bound patriarchy, deriving from Old Testament Jewish patriarchy and also African culture,” she added.