Abstract
This qualitative, transdisciplinary study involves thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with eighteen couples, thirty-six individuals altogether, who were recruited from Protestant churches and tertiary institutions across different regions of New Zealand. The primary question which guides this study is: How do church-going heterosexual couples understand and practise egalitarian relationships in New Zealand? Egalitarianism in the context of this study is defined as the position that women and men are of equal, intrinsic value, and there are no gender-based limitations of what functions or responsibilities each can fulfil in the home, church, or society. The central focus of this study is the place of men’s and women’s attitudes and practices in the creation of egalitarian heterosexuality among egalitarian-identifying couples who attend Protestant churches. Conservative Christian gender relations, organised by the principles of hierarchy and female subordination, have been a well-documented and widely criticised element in the Christian tradition. In light of this, more work is needed in sociology to explore more progressive, egalitarian relational frameworks in Christian contexts.
Using gender relations theory (Connell, 2021) and “doing religion” (Avishai, 2008) as the overall conceptual lenses, this study reveals how Protestant Christian church-going women and men understand and practice gender equality in their partnerships, highlighting their distinct egalitarian praxis. In Connell’s (2021) gender relations framework for understanding and analysing intimate relationships Connell has outlined four gender relations: power, economic, emotional, and symbolic. This research advances and adds to Connell’s (2021) gender relations theory by exploring religion as a fifth dimension of gender relations. In the results chapters I will analyse these five areas of gender relations within in the narrations and experiences of the participant couples as they strive to practice egalitarianism.
The current study offers insight into New Zealand’s progressive Protestant culture. Within this context egalitarian individuals could be referred to as gender norm violators, those who deviate from what has been considered traditional Christian heterosexual behaviour in relationships. To be egalitarian is to demonstrate noncompliance with hegemonic gender and religious norms embedded and structurally reinforced within religious and secular New Zealand society. Studying couples who do this while existing within church structures, known for their patriarchal history and discursive gender defined responsibilities, adds to our understanding of how to overcome barriers to challenging and changing gender order and regimes, and how to overcome barriers to articulating new forms of masculinity.
This research advances a critical gender lens on the sociology of religion by arguing that religion can be a resource for redoing gender, undoing gender, rethinking gender regimes and dominant forms of masculinity. To do gender in a more progressive way, the couples in this study also have to redo their religion to be more egalitarian. In this sense, doing religion means a negotiation with a progressive Christian theology that shapes doing relationships, and vice versa. Men’s and women’s relationship with religion and commitment to subversive theological gendered concepts adds another dimension to gender relations analysis. However, the findings also highlight ways in which the participants reproduce hegemonic gender practices and remain accountable to patriarchal gender norms and male-privileging processes within workplaces, families, and churches. Thus, those desiring to have relationships based on equality must pay attention to the cultural and institutional contexts that shape compliance and complicity to hegemonies.