Abstract:
The article
investigates women’s socialization in terms of their position in society and the church,
and their roles in the marriage relationship. A brief historical overview is given of how the
understanding of marriage has developed, with specific emphasis on marriage and marital
roles in Afrikaans cultural and religious contexts. The authors examine the ecclesiastical
magazines Die Hervormer and Die Jaarboek van die Nederduitsch Hervormde Sustersvereniging
(Yearbook of the Netherdutch Reformed Women’s Association). The article shows that the
message communicated to women who are members of the Netherdutch Reformed Church
with regard to marital roles is that they must be submissive. Centuries of conditioning has
created submissiveness and inferiority in these women and this has affected them negatively
not to be equal to men in society and marriage relationships.
Description:
This article represents a
reworked version of aspects
from the PhD dissertation
(University of Pretoria),
entitled ‘’n Transformatiewe
pastoraat vir die huwelik en
kerk in krisis’, with Prof. Dr
Yolanda Dreyer as supervisor.