Women’s Rights and Social Participation in Semitic Religions: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This paper examines women’s rights and social participation across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with attention to scriptural sources, classical legal interpretation, and modern institutional change. We trace how textual hermeneutics, legal schools, and political economy shape women’s status in education, work, civic life, and religious leadership. Rather than treating any tradition as monolithic, we highlight intra-religious diversity (denominational, regional, and temporal) and the entanglement of religious norms with state law and culture. The analysis shows that all three traditions contain resources both for restriction and for empowerment; historically contingent reforms—literacy expansion, codification, family-law reform, and democratization—mediate outcomes. We conclude by proposing a comparative framework for evaluating progress that centers lived experience, legal enforceability, and institutional access.