Evaluation of the Gender Dimension to the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya’s policy on women dressing in Mumias Sub-county, Kenya
Journal Title: Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2017, Vol 5, Issue 10
Abstract
Abstract:The world of the twenty first century today has many achievements yet as the saying goes; the more things change the more they remain the same. This seems to be the case in matters of dress especially in reference to women’s attire. The Christian scriptures do not seem to give a normative direction in matters of adornment in general and women’s dress in particular. The main objective of this study was to examine the extent to which the attitude towards adornment in trousers among women in Mumias sub-county Full Gospel Churches of Kenya was a gender negation rather than a Biblical position. To achieve this, the study analyzed the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya policy on women dressing. The literature review was carried out using themes drawn from the objective. The study was guided by the liberal feminism theory. This theory was used to establish if there were individual rights and equal opportunities as a basis for social justice and reform in Mumias Full Gospel Churches. This study adopted descriptive survey design to present data thus it was involved in studying the situation as it is in an attempt to explain why the situation is the way it is. The sampling techniques were stratified random sampling, purposive and simple random sampling. Purposive sampling was used to select the clergy and their spouses, stratified random sampling was used to select the representative sample from the target population of the general faithful and the simple random technique was used to sample respondents for the Focus Group Discussion. The study instruments were interview schedule, questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions and document review. The validity of the instruments was established through content validity by experts from the school arts and religious studies, Masinde Muliro University. The study found out that there is gender bias against women in church. Patriarchy of the African society had been carried to, and perpetuated by the church through formulation of rules and erroneous interpretation of the Bible to favor paternalistic positions on issues of adornment translating to a church that is oppressive to the womenfolk. The study recommended that Mumias FGCK should initiate training programs for the clergy and other leaders in hermeneutics and exegesis for better leadership and training skills on matters of adornment, women should be allowed freedom of choice according to the constitution and that Mumias FGCK should expose its adherents to the church constitution by making it easily accessible and practice its contents especially on matters of adornment. This study shall add to the existing pool of knowledge in Religious and Gender studies, assist in FGCK policy formation and bring about liberation to oppressed women. Keywords:Christian scriptures, women dressing, constitution.
Authors and Affiliations
Amunga Caroline Noel
Keywords
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