Social groups (class and gender) religiosity Flashcards
What methods are used to measure differences in religiosity between social groups?
What do these all share regarding the quality of their data?
What happened in the 2001 census?
What is the issue with when the Church census mark attendance?
What is the difference between religiosity and religious belief?
-The census
-Church census
-Surveys
-Data held by religious organisations themselves.
-All are problematic!
-e.g. In 2001 census: 390,000 Jedi Knights in the UK.
-The Church census marks attendance on a given date so gives an incomplete picture.
-Religiosity suggests actively practicing the religion. Relgious belief means just believing it.
What is the traditional view regarding which social class belief is stronger among?
What does this link with (Weber,classical marxists)?
What did a survey in 2015 reveal about the social class of church goers?
CofE compared to other Churches in the UK?
What communities is Catholicism strong in?
-The traditional view is that religious belief is stronger among the working class.
-This links with Weber’s thoedicy of disprivilege and the traditional marxist idea of the opiate of masses.
-2015 a survey revealed 62% of church goers in the UK are middle class.
-The CofE congregation is much more middle class than Methodist or Roman Catholic.
-Catholicism is strong in established and new migrant communities(e.g. Irish & Polish).
What are the reasons for religiosity among the working class?
What organisations are they more likely to join?
What are the reasons for religiosity among the middle class?
What organisations are they likely to join?
-Reasons for religiosity among the working class are;
Theodicy of Disprivilege. Religion offers ‘compensators’(such as rewards in afterlife).
Financial/social support and welfare. Also a sense of belonging and community.
-The working class are more likely to join denominations and sects.
-Middle class relgiosity is due to; spiritual deprivation/ relative deprivation. Social networking. Tradition and social desirability.
-The middle class are likely to join Cults, New Age movements and Traditional Churches.
Which gender is significantly more likely to attend church and self-report being religious?
What percentage of women in 1990 said they believed in God compared with men? What did a church census show the percentage of congregations were 2005?
-Women.
-1990 84% of UK women said they believed in God, compared with 64% of men.
-2005 a church census showed congregations were 57% women and 43% men.
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What is the traditional view for the differences in gender religiosity?
How does age play a part in this?
What characteristics does gender socialisation breed in women?
-The traditional view is that women are socialised into nurturing expressive role, link to child bearing/rearing, care for the elderly etc.
-Women live longer: older people are more likely to be religious.
-Gender socialisation leads to women being more passive and compliant: men are less likely to accept rules.
What does Bruce point out regarding class differences within women’s religiosity?
What does he argue paid work has to do with gender differnces? What does he link this to?
What does Bruce estimate about gender involvement in sects?
What do 3 things sects offer according to Stark and Bainbridge?
Class differences: Bruce points out that there are class differences in the types of religion that appeal to women. New Age movements that emphasise personal control and autonomy appeal to middle class women. But working class women are appealed by ideas that give them a passive role i.e. One all powerful God.
Paid work: Bruce also argues that women’s religiosity is a result of their lower levels of involvement in paid work.
-He also makes links with rationalisation which has gradually driven religion out of the male dominated public sphere of work. As religion has become privatised men’s religiosity has declined more quickly.
According to Hoffman and Miller what are the three main reasons for women’s higher levels of religiosity?
Explain these.
-Risk taking, socialised to being more passive, (free-time) more likely to work part-time etc.
-Risk taking: By not being religious people are risking dying and not going to heaven. (Men are less risk averse).
-Socialised to be passive obedient/caring; all qualities valued by most religions. Therefore women are more likely to be attracted to religion.
-Gender roles mean women are more likely to work part time; so they have more scope to organise time to take part in religious activities.
Who found that 80% of the people involved in the holitic milleu in Kendal were women?
Why might women be more attracted to New Age movements according to them?
What do New Age movements celebrate?
What does Woodhead describe as the ‘individual sphere’ ?
-Heelas and Woodhead.
-Heelas Woodhead argue women are attracted to New Age movements as they are more associated with ‘nature’(i.e.childbirth).
-New Age movements often celebrate the ‘natural’ and involve cults of healing, which gives women a higher status and self worth.
-The individual sphere is when women in paid work may experience a role conflict: between their masculinised instrumental role in public and traditional feminine role in the family. New Age beliefs appeal to women as a third sphere(individual sphere). It is concerned with individual autonomy and personal growth rather than role performance. They bypass role conflict by creating a new source of identity for women based on ‘inner self’.
Since the 1970s what religion has grown rapidly particularly among the poor in Latin America?Who else has it proved attractive among?
What does Brusco argue is the reason for this?
What do women of this religion use its ideas to combat?
What are men pressured to do?
Why does De Beauvior criticise this?
-Pentecostalism which has also proved attractive among women.
-Brusco argues this is because Pentecostalism demands that its followers adopt an ascetic lifestyle and a traditional gender division of labour.
-Pentecostal women can use its ideas to combat the culture of machismo .
-Men are pressured to change their ways, act responsibly and support their families.
-De Beauvior argues that religion is used to justify patriarchy and even pentecostalism teaches scriptures such as the ‘meek and mild shall inhert the earth’ teaching women to follow these characteristics.
How amount women does Bruce estimate are involved in sects compared to men?
What do Stark and Glock argue is the reasons for this(3)?
Explain.
-Bruce also estimates that there are twice as many women as men involved in sects.
-Stark and Glock argue sects offer compensators for oganismic, ethical and social deprivation.
-Organismic deprivation: stems from physical and mental health problems. Women are more likely to suffer ill health and seek healing sects offer.
-Ethical deprivation: Women tend to be morally conservative. Likely to regard the world as being in a moral decline.
-Social deprivation: Sects attract poorer groups and women are more likely to be poor.
Although women appear to attend church more does this make them more religious? Why?
Why might women say they have a religious belief in surveys? Why might young men have the opposite response?
Are all sects dominated by women ?
-NO. Women may attend church for other reasons(e.g. friendship or support) and men who do not attend church may still behave religously.
-Women may say they have a religious belief and affiliation in surveys because they see it as socially desirable.
-Young men may have the opposite response and worry that religious faith is not socially desirable and is ‘uncool’.
-NO. Some sects are very male-dominated and can have quite extreme and conservative views about the role of women in society, e.g. they adopt uncompromising positions on the role of women and issues such as abortion.
