Erkmen, Hatice Altundal

This study undertakes a critical examination of how key figures, William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl G. Jung, who impacted the development of the psychology of religion, conceptualized women within their theoretical frameworks. It addresses a substantial gap in the literature concerning the insufficiently examined and asymmetrical representation of women in early psychological theories of religion. The analysis begins by tracing the emergence of the psychology of women as a separate subdiscipline, developed in response to sexist assumptions and theories embedded within mainstream psychology and shaped by the socio-cultural and scientific contexts of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This historical analysis brings into focus the conditions under which early theories in the psychology of religion were developed. The study does not adopt a feminist theoretical approach; instead, it examines the historical realities and ongoing role of discriminatory frameworks within the field. Focusing on persistent methodological limitations, particularly the lack of appropriate tools for capturing women’s religious experiences, it employs discourse analysis and literature review to show how these early theorists reinforced patriarchal ideologies, which led them to treat women’s spiritual and religious subjectivities in asymmetrical and biased ways. The study further identifies key parallels and similarities between early psychology and the psychology of religion in their constructions of femininity and masculinity. While not proposing direct solutions, this research contributes to the field by uncovering historical biases and encourages future scholarship to critically reassess male-centered frameworks and to develop more inclusive and nuanced methodologies that better account for the complexity of women’s religious lives.