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 the 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