has feminism caused the fall of religion?

It is only within the last 50 years that the status of women has improved in the western world, and it is more than coincidence that the rise of feminism coincided with the fall of religion.

As feminism permeates non-western cultures a scenario similar to the one the west went through plays itself out. Every gain in every sphere of life - from the franchise, to equal pay and equal rights in marriage - was bitterly fought for by women and bitterly opposed by men in churches, government and private lives who, quite obviously, did not want to lose the absolute power they had enjoyed for thousands of years.

The rise of Black Rights shook the world but not the churches as the movement was predominantly led by black men for black men. Black women, like white women, were still described as chattels, male property, to be beaten for disobedience, in law books as well as religious tracts.

It is difficult, now, to imagine a time when western women had no voting rights, no right to own property, no right to their own bodies, no right to marry or divorce as they pleased, no right to equal pay, no right to walk alone, no right to wear what they pleased, etc. The list is endless. And yet while great changes have taken place in the secular world over the past 50 years, very few changes have happened in the religions regarding the inequality of women. And this desperate clinging to power by the male establishment in the houses of God has turned many women - and enlightened men - away from established religions towards new areas of spirituality.

Religious leaders are not elected by their 'flocks' and are thus not under the same obligation to 'serve' as politicians are. Even while half - or even three-quarters - of the seats in houses of God are emptying, religious leaders remain in the 1950s. Until the old religious leaders die off - opening the way for more enlightened leaders - organized religion will continue to fall in relevance in the western world.

It is only in less enlightened countries - where the vast bulk of women remain downtrodden - that religion remains strong. These countries are centuries behind the western world - but eventually they will catch up. Until then, women will suffer under the yolk of a male dominated dark-aged establishment, earning half the wages of men for equal work and being severely restricted in other areas.

Before feminism, western women were expected to marry at 16 or, at the very latest 21 at which age they were considered 'old and shelf material', and many had to accept a husband chosen by their parents. Very few women were accepted for higher education. It was not considered important to educate girls. Married women were frowned on for working and if they fell pregnant, they were required to leave work. If a single girl fell pregnant, she was required to put the baby up for adoption. There was no easy divorce. Women were effectively at the mercy of men, and men loved the way things were. If any woman complained, the bible was shoved in her face.

Just like thousands of years ago, an adult western woman in the 1950s was expected to live her life through a man and male dominant political and religious institutions forced young girls to toe the line. On half the wages of a man doing similar work, there was no way an ordinary girl could make it on her own. If she didn't marry, she had no social status whatsoever. Although many of these women had competently done the work of men during WWII when their men-folk were at war, they were expected to return to the kitchen sink when their men-folk returned!

The generation of western women that were born after the 1950s - the baby boomers - take their freedom and equal pay for granted, often completely oblivious of the awful fight their mothers and grandmothers fought on their behalf. They are, however, continuing the fight in the houses of God - places where their mothers and grandmothers had no impact whatsoever. They compare their secular lives with their religious lives and see glaring chasms of inequality, iniquity and misogyny. These are the women who are spearheading the shakedown on churches everywhere.

They don't send their children to Sunday school or church camps or allow their sons to become choir boys because they fear they will be molested. And they don't go to church any more because they don't want to see men in frocks telling them what they can and cannot do. And they won't support any organization that does not give career opportunities to women. If a religion bars women from performing ministerial duties, then it is not a religion they want to belong to.

It is any wonder that the non-western religions are tightening their grip, battening down the hatches against the spread of feminism in their lands?