Religiosity & Social Groups Flashcards
You Gov 2020, what % of women believe in God compared to what % of men?
48% of women
36% of men
What did the living wage foundation find about women?
2023
Women are more likely than men to be trapped in low paying, insecure and precarious jobs, overall 60% of all jobs that pay below the real living wage are held by women
Who supports the findings of the living wage foundation?
Weber
Marginalised groups on the edges of society are more likely to turn to religion because it provides a theodicy of deprivilege, a religious justification for the economic and social rewards they are denied, framing it as a test of faith
How does paid work explain why women are less religious?
Bruce
- Women are less likely to work
- Women are more concerned with the private sphere of the family, as religion as become privatised, men’s religiosity has declined quicker then women’s
Who supports Bruce’s view?
Brown
In the 1960s, many women had taken on paid work and this led to ‘decline of female piety’ women too were withdrawing from religion
How have the feminisation of churches explain why women are more religious?
Woodhead
- Declining presence of men in churches has caused them to become more feminised
- They now emphasise women’s concerns such as caring and relationships
- This makes religion more attractive to women
- CoE intro of female priests/bishops
How do gender roles and socialisation explain gender differences in religion?
Miller & Hoffman
- Women are socialised to be more passive, obedient and caring
- These qualities are most valued by religion, making it more attractive to them
- Women’s gender roles means they are more likely to work part time, so have more time to engage with religion
Who identifies 3 types of women with regards to religious participation?
Woodhead
Home centred– women who stay at home rather than work, more likely to engage with traditional religions and subscribe to conservative values
Work centred–women who work demanding jobs, more likely to be secular because they do not have time for religious activities and cannot relate to the ways women are portrayed by those religions
Jugglers–women who balance both work and family, still seek some sort of spiritual guidance, involved in NAM, require less commitment
Why do women in NAM have higher status then traditional religions?
Heelas & Woodhead
Movement celebrates the ‘natural’ and involves healing which gives women a higher status and greater sense of self worth
Why are NAM attractive to women?
Bruce
Women’s experiences of childbearing make them less aggressive, more goal oriented, cooperative, where men wish to achieve, women wish to feel
Why do women experience role conflict?
Woodhead
Women in paid work experience role conflict between masculinised, instrumental role in work public sphere & traditional, expressive feminine role confined to the private sphere of the family
What is the third sphere?
NAM are attractive to women because they appeal to the third individual sphere, concerned with autonomy, personal growth rather than performance
What forms of deprivation are most common among women, which NAM offer compensators for?
Stark & Bainbridge
Organismic deprivation: physical and mental health issues, women are more likely to suffer from poor health
Ethical: feel the world is in moral decline, women are more likely to have conservative views
Social: women are more likely to be poor
NAM offers compensators, these forms of deprivation are most common among women
Women are not more religious because religion reinforces patriarchal control?
- Armstrong
- Holm
- De Beauvoir
Why are the middle class more likely to attend church?
Troeltch
Churches are large organisations with millions of members such as the catholic church
They have beaucratic hierarchy of professional priests who claim monopoly over the truth
Attract higher classes because they are ideologically conservative and linked to the state
You Gov, what % of working/middle classes are regular churchgoers?
Survey found that 62% of regular churchgoers were middle class and 38% working class
Why are middle class more deprived in terms of spirituality?
Stark & Bainbridge
Middle class feel the world is too consumerist and is lacking spiritual bonds, lacking impersonal and moral value
Why are working class more likely to be religious?
Weber - Marginality
N & I - Existential security theory
Why are the middle class less likely to be religious due to their education?
Weber
Rationalisation, more likely to adopt scientific ways of thinking rather than religious ones #
AO3 – Bruce, technological worldview
Religion does not provide comfort because it reinforce social class hierarchy?
Marx - Opium of the masses
Lenin - spiritual gin
Why do sects appeal to the working class?
Troeltch
Small, exclusive groups, hostile to wider society, draw members from the poor and oppressed, charismatic leader rather than beaucratic hierarchy claim monopoly over the truth
Are black people or white people more likely to be religious?
Brieley
Black people in London are twice as likely to attend church then white people
What was found by NHS data?
2021
Black people are four times more likely to be detained under the mental health act
What was found by the Runnymede trust?
2021
Black & minority ethnic people in the UK are twice as likely as white people to experience ‘deep poverty’
