Gender oppression and Pentecostal Christian religion: an exploration of the position of Africa migrant married women in Durban.

Abstract

Discourses about oppression against women are linked to different factors. Against this background, this study explored the nexus between gender, religion, migration, and patriarchy in a context of black migrant women living in Durban, South Africa. Accordingly, this study argues that Pentecostal hermeneutics is an incubator for subtle oppression against married women. Although the church has been presented as a place for liberation, it is still a place where patriarchal values thrive. The study also explored the gender ideologies associated with migration, as the women found themselves in a new gender regime as it differs from their previous gendered lives; as such they were faced with gender-specific problems and gender roles that challenged their quality of life and selfidentity. It became more complicated as these women’s experience of gender oppression in their marriage affects their self-esteem and they continue to contend with these gender challenges, and they respond differently as well, either to adapt or to resist patriarchal values. To this end, the study adopted a qualitative research methodology to explore the lived experiences of black migrant women on gender oppression through the lens of Pentecostal Christian religion. It presents the key narrative of these women’s experience of oppression to gain an insight into the role of Pentecostal churches in the establishment of women’s identity. Drawing from the arguments of selected socio-religion scholars, this study advances the argument that African women across traditional African cultures and history adopt various strategies and ideas for circumventing and negotiating patriarchal structures and thus gain a position of significance within familial and intimate terrains. In this research, the theoretical arguments of social constructionism, gendered geographies of power and Nego-feminism were deployed to examine the nature of gender oppression in transnational spaces and how they negotiate their space for shared autonomy in marriage. This study discovered that too little attention has been paid to the role of Pentecostal Christian religious teachings and the interpretation of the Bible in shaping power relations, oppression, and its corresponding effect on women’s identity within marriages. Further findings are that negotiation, compromise, food and sexual activities are strategies adopted by these women to influence the power dynamics of their households.