Shakti Hinduism and Sikhism combine to form Shakti Sikhism, a kind of feminist Sikhism, in which the deity who is prayed to is a powerful, independent woman who practices equality. This is to balance with many other religions where men have a higher status than women. This Shakti Sikhism would balance gender status stereotypes and make women more active in their religion. In Sikhism, it is questionable whether religious texts portray women well or whether they portray them often enough in general. What is undisputed, however, is that women continue to hold an inferior status in the Sikh tradition. Women are often ignored in the Sikh religion. Doris Jakobsh states that: “While Sikh apologetics repeatedly insist that women and men are intrinsically equal in the Sikh worldview, in reality, historical writings contain virtually nothing about women, other than minimal digressions referring to occasional exceptional women who were deemed worthy. so much so as to have written the pages of history" (Relocating, 7). This shows that there is a discrepancy between the equality that Sikhs seem to believe women have in their religion and the restrictions placed on women anyway. As I learned about Sikhism, I found it curious that there was a serious lack of female influence recognized in the conception of the religion. Considering the fact that there were many women present, after visiting a Sikh Mandir, it seemed that many members of the female population in Sikhism were missing. MK Gill notes that although Mata Sundri [one of Guru Gobind Sing's wives] led the Panth longer than any of the nine Gurus following Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh tradition, and through one of its most difficult and... .. half of the paper ......ality. But together, Sikhism and Shakti Hinduism form a happy medium in which women have power they have never had before. Works Cited Fisher, Mary Pat. Living religions. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2003. Print. Hiltebeitel, Alf, and Kathleen M. Erndl. Is the Goddess feminist? The politics of South Asian goddesses. New York: New York UP, 2000. Print.Jakobsh, Doris. Relocalizing gender in Sikh history. Delhi: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.Jakobsh, Doris R. “Sikhism, Interreligious Dialogue, and Women: Transformation and Identity.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 21.2 (2006): 183-99. Print.Singh, Nikky-Guninder K. The feminine principle in the Sikh vision of the Transcendent. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ., 1993. Print.Wadley, Susan S. “Women and the Hindu Tradition.” Signs: Journal of Women inCulture and Society 3.1 (1977): 113-125. Press.