Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1995, page 45
Women within the group were used as sexual objects, exploited for their potential to attract
new members.
Apart from the use and abuse of women as recruiters, there is also the issue of the general
treatment of women within the group. What happens to them that is different from what
happens to male members? First, the groups generally (with some exceptions) insist on a
greater degree of submission for the female members. Women are fitted into a role that is
more reflective of their status a generation or two ago than in the contemporary scene. I
found this to be the case in a group in New Jersey. A group of about 10 or 12 women, all of
whom were among the highest academic graduates of the Seven Sisters schools, were
required to spend their lives doing housekeeping chores and playing no other role in the
world, despite their education. The desire to use any of their acquired skills was not
permitted. The leader‟s psychological manipulations had caused them to regress to a
childlike, dependent, and submissive role. When I asked them why and how they accepted
that kind of regression, their answer was that it was so much more comfortable, so much
less threatening to accept that role, to simply give up all of their individuality, than to
challenge their leader. In this particular situation, not only had the women been
manipulated into giving up asserting themselves, but also they had given up their names
and identities, and had been induced to become interchangeable people without any
particular identity of any kind.
Within certain cultic groups we find that the leader exercises sexual domination and control
over the members. Often in such groups, each female member is purportedly afforded a
“special” relationship with the leader, and of course that “special” relationship is one that
must be held confidential, kept secret from every other member of the group --that is, until
the women find that they all have had the same “special” relationship with the leader. This
involves, again, a tragic elimination of the individual personality and a gender-specific abuse
of sexual power.
In many cultic groups we find a familial problem that involves abuse between generations.
Children are abused by parents, and sexual abuse by leaders is prevalent. Incest is not
unheard of, sometimes occurring as part of a ritual bonding relationship. Again in such
groups the women are likely to suffer from particular problems that are more exacerbated
than men‟s experiences.
Third, we must consider issues that relate specifically to women in their emergence from
groups. Sexual issues and sexual abuse have different implications and different aftereffects
from some of the other experiences typically found in cults. If a man becomes involved in a
group whose sexual mores are very liberal and unstructured, he might come out and say, “I
slept with 12 women.” The woman who comes out of the same group and says “I slept with
twelve men” will experience a tremendous difference in her social adjustment afterwards.
Consequently, we must draw a distinction between men‟s and women‟s experiences as they
try to resume conventional roles in society. I know one woman who was involved in a New
Age group that engaged extensively in liberal sexual practices. She is now in a top-level
senior executive position. She lives in fear that somehow her employer will find out that she
engaged in this cult activity, and that such knowledge will destroy her professional status.
This is a peculiar kind of problem that women risk when they leave cults.
Women also disproportionately bear the onerous results of matrimonial and family
arrangements that were made within the cult by the group‟s leaders. These arrangements
tend to fracture after one of the parties in the family leaves the cult. Within the cult, often
women are assigned childbearing and child-rearing roles. This situation may produce no
immediate problem of conflict so long as both marriage partners are in the cult, and no
particular abusive behavior is involved. However, when a woman leaves the cult without her
partner, she must contend with dissolving a marriage and looking after the welfare of her
Women within the group were used as sexual objects, exploited for their potential to attract
new members.
Apart from the use and abuse of women as recruiters, there is also the issue of the general
treatment of women within the group. What happens to them that is different from what
happens to male members? First, the groups generally (with some exceptions) insist on a
greater degree of submission for the female members. Women are fitted into a role that is
more reflective of their status a generation or two ago than in the contemporary scene. I
found this to be the case in a group in New Jersey. A group of about 10 or 12 women, all of
whom were among the highest academic graduates of the Seven Sisters schools, were
required to spend their lives doing housekeeping chores and playing no other role in the
world, despite their education. The desire to use any of their acquired skills was not
permitted. The leader‟s psychological manipulations had caused them to regress to a
childlike, dependent, and submissive role. When I asked them why and how they accepted
that kind of regression, their answer was that it was so much more comfortable, so much
less threatening to accept that role, to simply give up all of their individuality, than to
challenge their leader. In this particular situation, not only had the women been
manipulated into giving up asserting themselves, but also they had given up their names
and identities, and had been induced to become interchangeable people without any
particular identity of any kind.
Within certain cultic groups we find that the leader exercises sexual domination and control
over the members. Often in such groups, each female member is purportedly afforded a
“special” relationship with the leader, and of course that “special” relationship is one that
must be held confidential, kept secret from every other member of the group --that is, until
the women find that they all have had the same “special” relationship with the leader. This
involves, again, a tragic elimination of the individual personality and a gender-specific abuse
of sexual power.
In many cultic groups we find a familial problem that involves abuse between generations.
Children are abused by parents, and sexual abuse by leaders is prevalent. Incest is not
unheard of, sometimes occurring as part of a ritual bonding relationship. Again in such
groups the women are likely to suffer from particular problems that are more exacerbated
than men‟s experiences.
Third, we must consider issues that relate specifically to women in their emergence from
groups. Sexual issues and sexual abuse have different implications and different aftereffects
from some of the other experiences typically found in cults. If a man becomes involved in a
group whose sexual mores are very liberal and unstructured, he might come out and say, “I
slept with 12 women.” The woman who comes out of the same group and says “I slept with
twelve men” will experience a tremendous difference in her social adjustment afterwards.
Consequently, we must draw a distinction between men‟s and women‟s experiences as they
try to resume conventional roles in society. I know one woman who was involved in a New
Age group that engaged extensively in liberal sexual practices. She is now in a top-level
senior executive position. She lives in fear that somehow her employer will find out that she
engaged in this cult activity, and that such knowledge will destroy her professional status.
This is a peculiar kind of problem that women risk when they leave cults.
Women also disproportionately bear the onerous results of matrimonial and family
arrangements that were made within the cult by the group‟s leaders. These arrangements
tend to fracture after one of the parties in the family leaves the cult. Within the cult, often
women are assigned childbearing and child-rearing roles. This situation may produce no
immediate problem of conflict so long as both marriage partners are in the cult, and no
particular abusive behavior is involved. However, when a woman leaves the cult without her
partner, she must contend with dissolving a marriage and looking after the welfare of her
