Where is there to go?

After our last class (about religion) I couldn't help but wonder what happens to women when they need a safe place to turn to? I have always assumed that religion or churches or any place of worship would be welcoming to those in need however, from what was discussed in class it made it feel like there would be a lot of women in different denominations that would –if the situation arose– would have nowhere to turn to if they didn't have a husband. It seems that if they are married and then divorce they will not be accepted back into their place of worship. Or if they don't marry or don't follow the specific rules of the religion they will be denied a "real" right to worship. And following those specific rules seem to oppress women more than liberating them.

When Hannah was talking about how she got looked at and judged when she did not follow the correct protocol of wearing a head covering in church it made me recognize how judgmental and offended people get when their rules are not followed strictly. Women's roles in religion or at least the ones we discussed in class seem to be a key factor in what is keeping women in the cage Frye discussed. It seems that oppression of women in religion is just excused as oh, that's just the way it is, or oh, that's tradition, or this is how it was meant to be. But then if there are so many religions that are enforcing this gender stereotyping in the name of religion it will also infiltrate the lives outside of religion enforcing the gender box. Then once this religious stereotype hits the media it becomes sexualized so the "ideal" american woman holds the catholic or Christian values of being a good wife, and supporting her husband etc, and then the sexuilization of the media creates this image of what we imagine as the woman in the boxes we made in class. Does religion need to change for the gender stereotype to change?