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A Culture Clash in Gender Equality: Exploring Female Membership within the Hare Krishna Movement in Sweden

Tillman, Sonya LU (2020) SOLM02 20201
Department of Sociology of Law
Abstract
This thesis centers on the continued participation and agency of women in Sweden within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, despite its direct culture clash with Nordic egalitarian policy. While also addressing the translation of religious belonging into an identity given the increased interaction with the surrounding secular environment of Sweden. The motivation behind this topic is situated within Swedish government policy, which outlaws “restrictive gender roles and structures”. Despite this, ISKCON projects a patriarchal ideology forwarding women as submissive beings in need of protection and incapable of the same spiritual advancement and intelligence as male devotees. Addressing the lack of research... (More)
This thesis centers on the continued participation and agency of women in Sweden within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, despite its direct culture clash with Nordic egalitarian policy. While also addressing the translation of religious belonging into an identity given the increased interaction with the surrounding secular environment of Sweden. The motivation behind this topic is situated within Swedish government policy, which outlaws “restrictive gender roles and structures”. Despite this, ISKCON projects a patriarchal ideology forwarding women as submissive beings in need of protection and incapable of the same spiritual advancement and intelligence as male devotees. Addressing the lack of research dedicated to the gendered experience of ISKCON, this study investigates this opposing ‘semi-autonomous social field’ by adopting an ethnographic inspired approach, both physically and digitally, through participant observation of shared ritual practice within a Southern Swedish ISKCON temple. Thus, coupled by seven semi structured interviews with female devotees from this Southern Swedish ISKCON temple and one in Central Sweden, focused on themes of ISKCON membership, identity, rituals, gender and Sweden. This study illustrates the complexity of ritual belonging, which enables a closer proximity to the normative order of ISKCON, despite the blending of Swedish values with that of ISKCON. Ultimately, projecting a situational experience to its female devotees in terms of agency and leadership opportunities. (Less)
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author
Tillman, Sonya LU
supervisor
organization
course
SOLM02 20201
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, gender, identity, rituals, ‘collective effervescence’, Sweden, secular, ‘semi-autonomous social fields’
language
English
id
9029495
date added to LUP
2020-10-09 10:42:50
date last changed
2020-10-13 21:04:07
@misc{9029495,
  abstract     = {{This thesis centers on the continued participation and agency of women in Sweden within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, despite its direct culture clash with Nordic egalitarian policy. While also addressing the translation of religious belonging into an identity given the increased interaction with the surrounding secular environment of Sweden. The motivation behind this topic is situated within Swedish government policy, which outlaws “restrictive gender roles and structures”. Despite this, ISKCON projects a patriarchal ideology forwarding women as submissive beings in need of protection and incapable of the same spiritual advancement and intelligence as male devotees. Addressing the lack of research dedicated to the gendered experience of ISKCON, this study investigates this opposing ‘semi-autonomous social field’ by adopting an ethnographic inspired approach, both physically and digitally, through participant observation of shared ritual practice within a Southern Swedish ISKCON temple. Thus, coupled by seven semi structured interviews with female devotees from this Southern Swedish ISKCON temple and one in Central Sweden, focused on themes of ISKCON membership, identity, rituals, gender and Sweden. This study illustrates the complexity of ritual belonging, which enables a closer proximity to the normative order of ISKCON, despite the blending of Swedish values with that of ISKCON. Ultimately, projecting a situational experience to its female devotees in terms of agency and leadership opportunities.}},
  author       = {{Tillman, Sonya}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{A Culture Clash in Gender Equality: Exploring Female Membership within the Hare Krishna Movement in Sweden}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}