Document Type
Article
Abstract
Prior sociological research has demonstrated that religious selves are gendered. Using the case of female inmates—some of the most disadvantaged Americans—this article shows that dominant messages constructing the religious self are not only gendered, but also deeply intertwined with race and class. Data from 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork on religion inside a U.S. state women’s prison reveal that religious volunteers—predominately middle-class African American women—preached feminine submissiveness and finding a “man of God” to marry to embody religious ideals. However, these messages were largely out of sync with the realities of working class and poor incarcerated women, especially given their temporary isolation from the marriage market and the marital prospects in the socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods to which many would return. These findings suggest that scholars must pay attention to how race, class, and gender define dominant discourses around the religious self and consider the implications for stratification for those who fail to fulfill this dominant ideology.
Publication Date
6-22-2018
Publication Title
Social Inclusion
Volume
6
Issue
2
First Page
181
Last Page
191
DOI
10.17645/si.v6i2.1367
Recommended Citation
Ellis, Rachel, ""It's Not Equality": How Race, Class, and Gender Construct the Normative Religious Self Among Female Prisoners" (2018). Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works. 14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v6i2.1367
Available at:
https://irl.umsl.edu/ccj-faculty/14
Included in
Criminology Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Political Science Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons