Gender And Religiosity Flashcards
Facts
There are gender differences in terms of religious practice, belief, self-identification, private prayer and many others…
Most churchgoers are female- they are more likely than men to attend regularly: outnumbering men by almost half a million! (Brierly, 2005)
More women than men (55% Vs 44%) say they have a religion. British Social Attitudes Survey 2012.
YouGov 2020: found that 48% of women believe in God compared to 36% of males
Miller and Hoffman
According to Miller & Hoffman, there are three main reasons for women’s higher levels of religiosity…
Risk
Socialisation
Roles
Risk
1) Risk: People are risking that religion might not be right, and therefore be condemned to hell. Men are more likely to take the ‘risk’ of not being religious than women!
Socialisation
2) Socialisation: Women are socialised into being more passive, obedient and caring. These are qualities valued by most religions. Men who have these qualities are also more likely to be religious.
Roles
3) Roles: Women’s gender roles means they are more likely than men to work part-time so they have more scope to participate in religious activities.
Supported by Bruce
GREELY (1992): WOMEN’S ROLE
argues that women’s role in taking care of family members increases their religiosity because it involves responsibility for their ‘ultimate’ welfare as well as their everyday needs.
Davie
Women are closer to birth and death
Davie (2013) argues that women are closer to birth and death (through child-rearing and caring for sick and dying relatives) and this brings them closer to ‘ultimate’ questions about the meaning of life that religion is concerned with.
Men are more likely to see a God of power and control, whereas women are more likely to see a God of love and forgiveness.
Bruce
The issue of paid work (sects/traditional)
women’s religiosity is a result of their lower levels of involvement in paid work. He links this to secularisation processes such as rationalisation. Over the past two centuries, this has gradually driven religion out of the male-dominated sphere of work
The issue of paid work evaluation A03
However, by the 1960’s, many women had also taken on secular, masculinised roles in the public sphere of paid work, and this led to what Brown (2009) calls ‘the decline of female piety’-women too were withdrawing from religion.
Religion remains more attractive to women for at least two reasons:
1) It has a strong association with values such as caring for others.
2) Men’s withdrawal from religion has meant that the churches gradually became feminised spaces that emphasise women’s concerns such as caring and relationships. Woodhead (2001) argues this continues to make religion appealing to women.
Woodhead
The third sphere
Women are more attracted to NAMs since they promote individual autonomy and growth. These groups don’t focus on acting out traditional roles which women are more likely to perceive as restrictive’
The third sphere evaluation
Bruce: NAMs = middle class women
Working class women = ideas that give them a passive role, such as belief in an all-powerful God or fatalistic ideas such as superstition, horoscopes or lucky charms.
Stark and Bainbridge
Women, compensators and sects
Stark & Bainbridge (1985) argue that people may participate in sects because they offer compensators for organismic, ethical and social deprivation. These forms of deprivation are more common among women and this explains their higher level of sect membership:
Types of deprivation (stark and Bainbridge)
ORGANISMIC DEPRIVATION
Ethical
Social
Organismic deprivation
ORGANISMIC DEPRIVATION: Stems from physical and mental health problems. Women are more likely to suffer ill health and thus to 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 and be attracted to sects, which often share this view.
Social deprivation
Sects attract poorer groups and women are more likely to be poor.
The pentecostal gender paradox:
Since the 70’s, pentecostalism has grown rapidly, particularly among the poor. In Latin America, 13% of the continent’s population are now members of pentecostal churches.
Typically, they are patriarchal, with men as heads of households and head of the church.
BUT, they have proved attractive to women. Martin (2000) describes the ‘pentecostal gender paradox’: why should a conservative, patriarchal religion appeal to women!?
Brasco
The Pentecostal gender paradox
Many women joined Pentecostal groups as, though they were still very traditional in terms of gender roles, they often emphasised the necessity for men to respect women. This gave women a chance to get men to ‘practice what they preached’
Religion and patriarchy (De Beauvoir)
De Beauvoir argued that religion is used as a form of control, over women and so women are encouraged to attend religious services
Religion and patriarchy (Bruce and Trzebiatowska)
Argue the moral guidance of family is delegated to women as part of expressive role
Women are expected to maintain ties with the church to provide veneer of respectability for the family- ‘guardians of domestic morality’
