FEMALE RELIGIOUS FUNCTIONARIES AND THEIR ROLES IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Female religious functionaries are the women who hold office or a trust and perform certain religious functions in a given religion. This study examines the role of women within several particular religious’ faiths and doctrines in relations to gender, gender roles, and particular women in religions history. There is often a dualism within religion which exacts women on the one hand, while demanding more rigorous displays of devotion on the other. It further examines the roles and extent of women’s involvement and contributions made in spiritual and national development process. Previous discussions on women deals with the several contributions of women to national development. This paper however paid attention to the roles of female religious functionaries in relation to national development. The paper adopted a socio-religious approach and a feminist perspective of conflict theory in its methodology. Findings from this study shows the effective roles women have played as religious functionaries and create more enlightenment to the society on the functional roles religious women can play in national development. The paper concludes that when religious women perform their functions in the society, development is guaranteed.
