Religious participation

e.g.s of gender differences in terms of religious practice, belief, self-identification, private prayer + many other aspects of religiosty?

• Most churchgoers are female + they are more likely than men to attend church regularly. Female churchgoers outnumber males by almost 1/2 a mil (Brierley 2005)

• More women than men (55% vs 44% say they have a religion (BSA 2012)

• More women than men (38% vs 26% say religion is important to them + more women (40% vs 28%) describe themselves as ‘spiritual’ (BSA 2008)

• Many fewer women than men (34% vs 54%) are atheists or agnostics. Even among atheists, men are nearly 2x as likely to say they definitely don’t believe in life after death (Voas 2015)

• In all major faiths in the UK except for Sikhs, women are more likely than men to practice their religion (Ferguson + Hussey 2010)

• Women express greater interest in religion + have a stronger personal commitment to it (Miller + Hoffman 1995)

What do explanations for gender differences in religious belief + practice tend to focus on?

the reasons for women’s relatively higher levels of participation compared with men’s

• According to miller + Hoffman, what are the 3 main reasons for women’s higher levels of religiosity?

Risk, socialisation, + roles

according to Miller + Hoffman, how is risk a reason for women’s higher levels of religiosity

By not being religious, people are risking that religion might be right + they will be condemned to hell. As men are less risk-averse than women, they are more likely to take the risk of not being religious

Davie on risk being a reason for women’s higher religiosity?

Davie notes, the virtual disappearance today of the dangers associated w childbirth than women had always faced throughout history, means that women in western societies face fewer risks + may be becoming less religious as a result

Miller + Hoffman + socialisation as a reason for women’s higher religiosity?

women are more religious as they are socialised to be more passive, obedient, + caring. These are qualities valued by most religions, so it follows that women are more likely than men to be attracted to religion. Men who have these qualities are also more likely to be religious

Miller + Hoffman + roles being the reason for women’s higher religiosity?

Miller + Hoffman note that women’s gender roles mean they are more likely than men to work part-time or to be full-time   carers, so they have more scope for organising their time to participate in religious activities. Women are also more likely to be attracted to the church as a source of gender identity

Greeley 1992 + roles being the reason for women’s higher religiosity

argues that their role in taking care of other family members increases women’s religiosity as it involves responsibility for they ‘ultimate’ welfare as well as their everyday needs

Davie 2013 + women + birth/death

• Davie 2013 argues that women are closer to birth + death (thru child-bearing + caring for sick + elderly) + this brings them closer to ‘ultimate’ questions abt the meaning of life that religion is concerned w. This also fits w differences in the way men + women see God: men are more likely to see a God of power + control, while women tend to see a God of love + forgiveness

Bruce 1996;2011 argues that women’s religiosity is a result of their lower levels of involvement in ____? + what does he link this to?

paid work. He links this to secularisation processes such as rationalisation

why Davie links women’s lower levels of involvement in paid work to secularisation processes such as rationalisation?

Over the past 2 centuries, this has gradually driven religion out of the male-dominated public sphere of work, confining it to the private sphere of family + personal life- the sphere that women are more concerned with. As religion has become privatised, so men’s religiosity has declined more quickly than women’s

Callum Brown 2009 + ‘the decline of female piety’?

by the 1960s, many women had also taken on secular, masculinised roles in the public sphere of paid work, + this led to what Callum Brown 2009 calls ‘the decline of female piety’: women too were withdrawing from religion

despite the decline, religion remains more attractive to women than to men for what 2 reasons?

• Religion has a strong affinity w values such as caring for others, women continue to have a primary role in caring for the young + old, both in the private sphere of the family + in the kind of paid work they often do 

• Men’s withdrawal from religion in the last 2 centuries meant that the churches gradually became feminised spaces that emphasises women’s concerns such as caring + relationships. Woodhead 2001 argues that this continues to make religion more attractive to women. The intro of women priests in the CofE in 1994 + women bishops in 2015 may have reinforced this

Women + the new age

• As women are more often associated w ‘nature’ (e.g. thru childbirth) + a healing role, they may be more attracted than men to new age movements + ideas. E.g. Heelas + Woodhead found that 80% of the participants in the holistic milieu in Kendal were female

women are so attracted to new age movements because they celebrate ____?

• This is cuz such movements often celebrate the ‘natural’ + involve cults of healing, which gives women a higher status + sense of self-worth. Bruce 2011 argues that women’s experience of child-rearing make them less aggressive + goal-orientated, + are more cooperative + caring- where men wish to achieve, women wish to feel. In Bruce’s view, this fits the expressive emphasis of the new age

Women are attracted to the new age because it emphasises_____?

• Women may also be attracted to the new age as it emphasises the importance of being ‘authentic’ rather than merely acting out roles - including gender roles. Women may be more attracted than men to this because they are more likely to perceive their roles as restrictive

The individual sphere:

Women in paid work may experience a role conflict: between their masculinised instrumental role in the public sphere of work + their traditional expressive feminine role in the private sphere of the family. Woodhead 2001 suggests that for these women, new age beliefs are attractive as they appeal to a 3rd sphere, which she calls the individual sphere. This sphere is concerned with individual autonomy + personal growth rather than role performance. New age beliefs bypass the role conflict by creating a new source of identity for women based on their 'inner self' rather than these contradictory social roles, giving them a sense of wholeness

Callum brown 2009 + the individual sphere?

argues that the new age 'self' religions - those that emphasise subjective experience rather than external authority - attract women recruits as they appeal to women's wish for autonomy. On the other hand, some women may be attracted to fundamentalism because of the certainties of a traditional gender role that it prescribes for them

Bruce 1996;2011, women, and class differences?

points out that there are class differences in the types of religion that appeal to women. While new age beliefs + practices emphasising personal autonomy,, control + self-development appeal to some middle-class women, working-class women are more attracted to ideas that give them a passive role, such as belief in an all-powerful God or fatalistic ideas such as superstition, horoscopes + lucky charms

Bruce 1996;2011, women, and class differences Fit w what?

fit w other class differences is areas such as education, where the middle-class belief in the ability of individuals to control their own destiny contrasts with fatalistic working-class attitudes

Women, compensators + sects: Bruce 1996

• Bruce 1996 estimates that there are 2x as many women as men involved in sects. 1 explanation for this comes from the religious market theorists, stark + Bainbridge 1985, they argue that people may participate in sects as they offer compensators for organismic, ethical + social deprivation. These forms of deprivation are more common among women + this explains their higher level of sect membership

Organismic deprivation:

stems from physical + mental health problems. Women are more likely to suffer ill health + thus seek the healing that sects offer

Ethical deprivation:

women tend to be more morally conservative. They are thus more likely to regard the world as being in moral decline + be attracted to sects, which often share this view

Social deprivation:

sects attract poorer groups + women are more likely to be poor

E.g. of how Since the 1970s Pentecostalism has grown rapidly in many parts of the world

. in Latin America an estimated 13% of the continent's population are now members of Pentecostal churches

Since the 1970s Pentecostalism has grown rapidly in many parts of the world, particularly among ______?

the poor

Pentecostalism, patriarchy + Martin 2000

• Pentecostalism is generally regarded as a patriarchal form of religion; men are seen both as heads of the household + heads of the church. Despite this, however, Pentecostalism has proved attractive to women.  Bernice Martin 2000 describes this as the 'Pentecostal gender paradox'

According to Elizabeth Brusco's 1995;2012 study of Pentecostals in Colombia, the answer to the gender paradox lies in_______

the fact that Pentecostalism demands that its followers adopt as ascetic lifestyle. Pentecostalism also insists on a traditional gender division of labour that requires men to provide for their family

Pentecostal women can use these traditional ideas to combat? + how?

a widespread culture of machismo in Latin America, where men often spend 20-40% of the household's income on alcohol, as well as further spending on tobacco, gambling + prostitutes. Pentecostal men are pressured by their pastor + church community to change their ways, act responsibly + redirect their income back into the household, thereby raising the standard of living of women + children

How Pentecostalism is not offering Western-style women's liberation?

men retain their headship role in the family + church. But as Brusco shows, Latin American women can + do use Pentecostalism as a means of improving their position. Thus, altho Pentecostalism is patriarchal, its critique of the sexual irresponsibility + wastefulness of machismo culture makes it popular with women

Carol Ann Drogus 1994 + pentecostalism

notes that altho official Pentecostal doctrine is that men should have authority over women, church magazines + educational materials often encourage more equal relations within marriage

Women’s participation and recent trends?

• Altho women remain more likely to be religious than men, there has been a decline in their participation in religious activities in the UK. We have already encountered some possible reasons for these trends, notably the movement of women into paid work +, related to this, their rejection of traditional subordinate gender roles

traditional religions, women, and recent trends?

• Because traditional religions have tended to be closely bound up w traditional gender roles, women's rejection of subordination has led them to reject traditional religion at the same time. Altho some women are not attracted to new age beliefs + practices, their numbers are relatively modest

Like Bruce, Woodhead believes that secularisation reduced ____?

the involvement of men in traditional religion as they became increasingly involved in the rationalised modern world

Woodhead 2005 + men withdrawing from churches

• As men withdrew from churches, they (churches) became increasingly feminised, + began to place more emphasis on love, care + relationships. Then, from 1970s onwards, increasing the numbers of married women returned to paid work, where they too were exposed to the rationalised culture of employment. As a result, the number of women attending churches declined rapidly

Woodhead believes that women still remain more religious than men, partly because____?

the emphasis on relationships within churches remains, but also because New Age beliefs helped to resolve identity problems of women combining work w caring roles

Woodhouse 2005 + feminisation of churches helps to explain ____?

the rapid reduction in church attendance in recent years

According to Marxists, social class is closely related to ____?

religious participation

Karl Marx’s theory of class + religious participation

believed that religion started in the subject classes as a way of coping w oppression, but it was later adopted by the ruling classes as a way of justifying their advantaged position in society. Marx therefore believed that all classes believed in religion, altho for slightly different reasons

Neo-Maxist theory of class + religious participation

such as Otto Maduro 1982 argue that when religious movements become a radical force for change they can become dominated by the subject class. E.g., the liberation theology movement amongst Catholics in Latin America was largely supported by the poor, who wanted to use religion to improve their position in society

Social class + types of religious organisation: churches

Aspire to include members from all classes. However, in contemporary Britain, the upper class + upper middle class are overrepresented because of an association w the establishment + a generally conservative ideology. This is supported by a YouGov poll in 2015, which found that over 60% of regular attenders at churches were middle class

Social class + types of religious organisation: denominations

• Slightly anti-establishment as they have broken away form the religious mainstream. However, Wallis 1984 notes that they are respectable organisations + therefore tend not to attract the lower classes. Appeal most to the upper working class + the lower middle class

Social class + types of religious organisation: sects

• Traditionally have recruited the most disadvantaged members of society. Require members to give up their previous life, so those w much to lose are unlikely to join. However, it can give the deprived a way of coping w their disadvantages. The black Muslims in the USA, for e.g. tend to recruit the most disadvantaged black Americans. Wallis argues that in the 1960s + 1970s they also began to appeal to the 'relatively deprived' middle class of affluent students who were seeking to compensate for their lack of a spiritual life

Social class + types of religious organisation: cults

• Client cults (as classified by Stark + Bainbridge 1985) or world-affirming new religious movements (Wallis' term) appeal to the already successful + affluent who want to become more successful. Other cult movements are similar to sects + tend to attract the disadvantaged or relatively deprived