Intergenerative aspects of religion in life conceptions of women in rural areas

Paricipants

Dipl. Paed. Monika Krutsch, Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Ziebertz, Prof. Dr. Horst Rupp

Research problem

Processes of social differentiation in a variety of forms have lead to a change in female lifestyles. Above all the integration of women in educative careers and their increased presence on the employment market indicate the weakening of the normal female biography, which was traditionally bound to marriage and family. Nevertheless, many women continue to take on the role of mother, which is accompanied by the parallel desire to have a job at the same time. The problem of combining family and career results from this. It provides a sustained characterisation of the life reality of women and is also to be find in rural areas. Influencing life style is an inherent part of religion. In the Catholic Church the classical woman's role as a house-bound wife and woman is a tradition, which, however, seems to apply to increasingly fewer women. In addition, a withdrawal of (above all) women from the Church can be observed, as well as an increasingly more individualised access to religion for women. Despite the decrease in significance of the Churches there are signs that religion is valued as a general instrument for providing meaning. Religion in the countryside profits from the consistency of traditional church structures, which can be observed in a delayed process of de-traditionalisation. In addition to the field of tension between traditional and modernity the research project concentrates on the influence of religion- as a general provider of meaning or as a religion of the Christian Church- on the life style of women in the countryside in an intergenerative comparison.

Research questions

The study asks how women in the countryside against the background of social change experience and evaluate their life concept with consideration for relationships between the sexes and religious ties. The concrete research question says: how do women in countryside areas form and judge their life plans in the context of a plural society, how does religion influence this and to what extent are questions of female lifestyle relevant in the intergenerative relationship between mother and daughter?

Research aims

The research project has its place in an educative theoretical context. Both feminist, religious and family-orientated knowledge for the concept development of adult education will be gained from the results of the study.

Method

qualitative-empirical research (Depth-interviews, Grounded Theory)

Publications

Weigand, M. / Ziebertz, H.-G. (2003), Religion und Geschlechterverhältnis in Lebenskonzepten von Frauen, in: Heininger, B. (Hrsg.), Geschlecht – Symbol – Religion, Münster,210-238.
Ziebertz H.-G. (2003), Religious Education in a plural Western Society. Problems and Challenges, Münster
Ziebertz H.-G. (2001, ed.), Religious Individualization and Christian Religious Semantics, Münster.