Gender & Religion
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 7.3.2
Gender and Religion
Although there is evidence to suggest that women are exploited within religion, statistics suggest that women are more likely to be religious than men. There are three main explanations covered in these sections.
1. Gender role socialisation
- Miller and Hoffman argue that women are more likely than men to participate in religion for three reasons:
- Role as a housewife- they have far more time on their hands compared to their working husbands.
Gender role socialisation cont.
- Miller and Hoffman:
Gender role socialisation- women are more nurturing than men and need the emotional support that organised religion can offer.
Concern about the risk of not being religious- compared to men due to the consequences in the afterlife and religion provides comfort and support for a woman which explains its appeal.
2. Wanting to be seen as a ‘good mother’
- Greely believes that young women are not necessarily interested in participating in religion until they have a child.
- This then changes their outlook.
Greely
- To be seen as a ‘good mother’ they need to raise their children with a strong sense of morality and ethics which can be helped by taking their child to church every Sunday.
- This shows the wider community that the woman is successfully performing her expressive role.
Gender and Religion
Although there is evidence to suggest that women are exploited within religion, statistics suggest that women are more likely to be religious than men. There are three main explanations:
3. As a response to deprivation
- Glock and Stark studied the rise in participation of women in new religious movements which is due to the three types of deprivation suffered by women in society:
- Social deprivation- lack of status in society.
Deprivation cont.
- Glock and Stark:
- Ethical deprivation-
- The sense that there has been a moral decline in society leading to desire for a strong set of core values that they can relate to.
- Organismic deprivation-
- Women are more concerned about their health than men and therefore may seek the comfort that religion provides.
Criticisms
- Woodhead criticises the above ideas, suggesting they are outdated as women do not all fit into those roles in contemporary society.
- Due to the progression of women in society, the way they engage in religion has changed.
- As a consequence there are now three types of women with regards to religious participation:
Woodhead
- Home centred:
- Women who stay at home rather than work and are most likely to engage with traditional religions.
- Work centred:
- The women who work full time in demanding jobs and are secular as they don’t have time for religion.
- Jugglers:
- The women who balance work with family life who still seek some form of spiritual experience, turning to New Age movements.