Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements (Feminist Philosophy) Paperback – October 14, 2004

The book Buddhist Women and Social Justice takes us on a literacy journey highlighting the challenges that Buddhist women face with gender attitudes, social problems, different standards between monks and nuns, the hierarchical injustices, and legal inequalities limiting opportunities for Buddhist women. It brings to light the centuries-old traditions that have not changed within the male-oriented Buddhist world.Despite the fact that the right to full ordination was granted by the Buddha to Buddhist nuns, they still today struggle to attain education, recognition and opportunities within the Buddhist world and have been denied opportunities to reach their full potential. The Buddhist principles of compassion, social harmony and loving kindness come naturally to the Buddhist nun. Despite all the challenges, Buddhist women continue to fight for their rights to change legal inequalities. Some progress has been made in Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam but that example has not been reflected in other countries of the world.The book addresses social issues like the global trafficking of women / girls, denying girls equal access to education and other social and cultural attitudes that affect the lives of girls and women in countries around the world. It is the compassion, understanding and loving kindness of the Buddhist nuns that will help to solve these and other problems.I highly recommend this book to all Buddhists, non-Buddhists and laypeople. It is an interesting and informative presentation of the problems that face our world and especially the problems Buddhist women face to achieve equality with Buddhist monks to address these and other issues.Julie Sormark

This book let women talk about their own encounter of the difficulties in buddhist life. The situation differs from country to country. In some countries the achievement of women is amazing. They have to swim agianst the stream and all are willing to stuggle for one main goal an equal and forfulling buddhist life for women.

This is a set of 16 essays on Buddhist women's social change efforts around the globe, including little-known areas as Newar Buddhists of Nepal, Spiti Valley, & the unnerving "Trafficking in Buddhist Girls." The quality of the articles varies dramatically. However, as David Gellner points out, p. 156, "Social work by monks or nuns, worthy though it is, is a modernist adaptation of traditional Buddhist practice." Indeed, the book seems an application of feminism to Buddhism, disregarding Buddhist spirituality. In fact, some of the interviewed nuns disagreed with Western women authors on the why of gender differences, their meaning to them, & their actual importance. IMHO, the strong Western feminist bias detracts from the book's impact. Per Caren Ohlson p. 248: "The conflict between Asian and Western cultural values is just one example of the challenges...Western focus on individual goals and the cultivation of a `unique' identity grate against the Asian idea of identity in connection to family and community, not to a sense of individual uniqueness." Strangely, her article is replete with bias & high valence language-seemingly she knows better than Asian nuns what's best for them. "Misogyny" is overused-in truth, nuns model it--its main meaning is "anti-marriage;" though "institutional androcentrism" & "anti-feminist" are justified, IMO. Several writers convincingly (both historically & per present trends) object to the 8 special rules making nuns subservient to monks. But their discounting Sri Lanka monks' objections to breaking lineage & labeling them misogynists is unjustified--people vary in need for structure etc. & attributing motivations to other people (& in a different culture) is risky at best. Also, most of their arguments are sociological-- p. 239: Caren Ohlson: "the socially constructed dichotomy of `woman' as the temptress and `man' as tempted." Jungians might consider this as psychological projection. Tsomo states: p. 67: "If Buddhist monastic institutions are to continue in the modern world, they must be based on gender equity...Neither the Buddha, his followers, nor the Buddhist monastic codes can be extracted from their social context...Now that gender equity has become part of a new global ethic, it is opportune to explore how Buddhism's egalitarian principles can be practically applied to social and religious institutions." But this assumes that SE Asia chooses to enter the "modern" (Western) world-one in which Buddhism has yet to make a major impact--despite p. 231 note 8: Elise Anne DeVido saying: "The requirements of the modern world demand modification to , or liberal interpretation of, the Vinaya." True, in her Introduction, Tsomo argues cogently concerning the legitimacy of Vinaya monastic rules & their relation to the 8. She is supported strongly in the last essay: pp. 237-8: Caren Ohlson: "Sponberg claims that the above story is by no means a historical account to the establishment of the nun's order. On the contrary, he asserts that the story was fabricated by monks...after the death of the Buddha...The 8 special rules that were created to govern nuns' behavior represented a mirror image of the husband/wife relationship in the lay community." Still, it's the prevailing Buddhist myth and scattered social action is unlikely to change it quickly especially without strong, active involvement & leadership by local Buddhist men & women. Tsomo & others' books do document progress in this & related areas.