Introduction -- Preliminary Considerations: Why Study Women and World Religion? -- Similarities and Differences in Women's Experience -- Outline of Chapter Organization -- Women and Hinduism -- Relationship of Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to Hinduism -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- Essence and Existence: Women and Religion in Ancient Indian Texts / Devadasi Reform: Driving the Priestesses or the Prostitutes Out of Hindu Temples? / Religious Ideology, Hindu Women, and Development in India / Women and Buddhism -- Relationship and Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to Buddhism -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentaries on the Therigatha / Mahaprajapati's Legacy: The Buddhist Women's Movement: An Introduction / Thai Buddhism: Women's Ordination or More Prostitution? / Women and Other Asian Religious Traditions -- Relationship of Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to Asian Religions -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- Women and Shinto: The Relation Between Purity and Pollution / Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa / Confucianism / Women and Judaism -- Relationship of Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to Judaism -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- Portrayals of Women in the Hebrew Bible / Ladies of the Sisterhood: Women in the American Reform Synagogue, 1900-1930 / Personal Vignettes / Women and Christianity -- Relationship of Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to Christianity -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- Sisters in Christ or Daughters of Eve? / Unfinished Symphony of Liberation: The Radicalization of Christian Feminism Among White U.S. Women / Mujerista Theology: A Challenge to Traditional Theology / Women and Islam -- Overview of Islam -- Relationship of Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to Islam -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- Meaning of the Glorious Koran -- Excerpts from Ravi'a the Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam / Muted Voices of Women Interpreters / Women and African Religions -- Relationship of Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to African Religions -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- Women in African Religions / Religion's Chief Clients / Alourdes: A Case Study of Moral Leadership in Haitian Vodou / Women and Goddess-Centered Religions -- Relationship of Female-Gendered and Feminine Images and Symbols to "Real" Women -- Women's Relationship to Goddess-Centered Religions -- Changes in the Status of Women -- Essay Selections -- Birth of a New Religion / Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections / Reclaiming the Sacred / From the House of Yemanja: The Goddess Heritage of Black Women