The relationship of women and religion is both complicated and intriguing. With International Women’s Day just days away, it seems like a good time to consider women’s connection to religions and religiosity.
There are many avenues to pursue, honestly too many for a single article. So today we’ll do a part I which includes some unpleasant aspects (like patriarchy) while part II will turn more optimistically to the Femininst Transformation of religion as arguably nothing has altered religion so much in the past 60 years as feminism. For today though, let’s begin by looking at women’s levels of religiosity and what factors are driving this. Then we’ll shift to considering whether religions contribute to patriarchy. Finally, we’ll conclude with some recent arguments by a number of insightful women who raise intriguing questions about whether religions are missing something fundamental about women’s spiritual and psychological journeys. We hope you find this informative and thought-provoking.
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Are Women More Religious Than Men?
Yes, they are. The Pew Forum has great international data showing that when asked if they pray daily, more women said yes in 43 out of 84 countries, while another 40 countries showed no difference, and in only 1 did men pray more often (Israel). Similarly, when asked if religion is “very important” in their life, women said yes more than men in 36 countries, another 46 showed no difference, and in only 2 did more men affirm this statement (Israel and Mozambique). This gender gap persists across many different religions including among Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus.
But there are exceptions. The main one is that the gender gap may not exist in Muslim-majority countries. This occurs not because Muslim women are less devout than their female religious peers but rather because Islam seems to generate strong piety from men. And finally, Israel is a real outlier in that men there do appear more religious than women. This is the only country on earth where this has been documented and even there, it is not true for more secular Jews nor for Israel’s non-Jewish communities. Instead, it is driven by its Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox communities. Again, this does not reflect low religiosity amongst the community’s women but rather the outlying factor is the men’s unusually high level of piety.
So, we have many places and many religions where women are more religious, one major religion where the two genders may be equally religious, and one tiny exception (highly religious Jews) where men are more religious. So women’s higher religiosity isn’t universal and specific religious cultures seem able to counter this general tendency but it is clearly the most common outcome.
So what is causing this?
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Why are Women More Religious?
A number of causes have been proposed, some pointing to nature and some to nurture.
On the nature front, the two most compelling arguments refer to gender differences (on average of course) in personality and in cognitive styles. On personality, psychologists have identified what they call the Big Five personality traits that make a large difference in our lives. Two of these five tie to higher religiosity, namely agreeableness and conscientiousness, and on both of these women tend to score higher (Saroglou, 2002; Schmitt et al, 2008). Agreeableness and conscientiousness are pro-social traits and make us, frankly, nicer and more pleasant to interact with. Religious communities encourage these behaviours and women tend to be naturally stronger on this front and therefore find a synchrony between their values and the ones their religious traditions encourage.
On thinking styles, researchers have noted that a more intuitive/experiential thinking style seems to correlate with being religious (1, 2). There’s some evidence that women, on average, lean more towards this intuitive/experiential style (1, 2). The research on personality seems more robust at this point than the research on thinking styles but there’s some evidence for it. In short, women’s leanings in both personality and thinking styles may mean more women feel aligned with religious traditions.
Nurture clearly plays a role too. The two primary explanations here are somewhat related. Some argue the domestic sphere is one that emphasizes religiosity (e.g. childbirth, child rearing, family traditions, rituals, etc.) whereas the work environment is more secular. Thus, women’s traditional role in the home would lead to less exposure to secularizing influences. Supporting this view is that the gender gap in religiosity seems to be smaller where women achieve full-time employment or live in more egalitarian societies.
Source: Pew Research Center
A second factor is that Norris and Inglehart have shown convincingly that religiosity is substantially impacted by existential insecurity. In short, those who experience insecurity in their formative years are far more likely to be religious than those who experience relative security. This is why rich countries are less religious than poor ones, why rich individuals are generally less religious than poor individuals in the same country, and why the West became so much less religious post 1960 as standards of living leaped forward while these secularizing trends did not happen in nations where lives have not improved.
With respect to gender, women often experience more insecurity due to the threat of male violence and because of greater challenges achieving economic security. Religion is honestly brilliant at helping us navigate life. It’s rituals provide structure and meaning, its teachings engender hope and build resilience, and its communal aspects foster support and empathy. Being religious (especially if you attend regularly) seems to correlate with happiness and well-being. Men’s lives are by no means always easy but women have faced extra burdens and have found in religions, valuable resources to help navigate life’s challenges.
In short, women have faced more difficult lives and have found in religion numerous valuable tools to help deal with those challenges. Not surprisingly, this has meant more affinity with religion and slightly higher levels of devotion. However, in societies where women work more, exposing them to more secularizing forces in their daily lives and granting them more economic independence, some of the religiosity difference also fades.
But not all of it. It seems that women’s higher religiosity may derive from a combination of both biological and cultural factors.
Is Religion a Patriarchal Force?
Most likely the answer here is yes. We should caveat here that religon is undergoing a transformation as women are making dramatic changes to religious communities and religious life which we will explore in our Part II. But for now, we should start by acknowledging some historical truths.
Men have historically had disproportionate power in shaping religions. For the major religions, all founding figures are male. This is generally true for most of the most prominent secondary figures as well and men have written the vast majority of the scriptures. This has obviously meant a disproportionate control of the narrative. The hierarchies, too, have often been dominated by men and it is not uncommon that religions place extra rules on women regarding childbirth and menstruation. Regrettably, women have sometimes been deemed unclean or temptresses or less spiritually capable, etc. And while some religions have female goddesses, there is no evidence that this actually benefits women.
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To be clear, patriarchy does not need religion. Scholars like Alice Evans, who possibly knows more about women’s status in societies across time than anyone who has ever lived, would contend that patriarchy is regrettably common in history, existing likely in every culture to varying degrees. So patriarchy as a whole cannot be blamed on religion.
But it seems fair to say that religion can strengthen patriarchy. It can make any social hierarchy seem designed by heaven and therefore unquestionable. In fairness, religion can be used to challenge patriarchy too – first wave feminism in the West was pushed by Christian women who argued that all were made in the image of God. But on the whole, religion has often ensconced and sanctified existing hierarchies. If women found strength in religion’s rituals, support in its community, and a cherishing of conscientious values that they espouse, they have unfortunately also had to contend too often with patriarchal structures.
Do Religions Partly Miss Women’s Lives and Challenges?
In recent years, some brilliant women have made a particularly insightful critique of religion that goes beyond the question of whether religions are patriarchal.
Celeste Davis summarizes this perspective well. Simply put, the claim is that religions focus on men’s spiritual challenges. Men, this argument goes, struggle with keeping their ego in check and hence religion after religion is focused on this specific problem. Thus, they advocate putting others first and shrinking one’s ego. Hence, you need to dissolve the ego (Buddhism), turn the other cheek (Christianity), or submit your will to Allah (Islam).
The female critics say that while this is good advice for men – encouraging them to follow the leads of Nelson Mandela or Mr. Rogers – this advice does not really suit the needs of women. They argue that women typically struggle with a very different challenge – namely being silenced too often, suppressing their own needs for those of others, and giving and giving until they’ve got nothing left.
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Women’s maturation and spiritual challenge, they claim, is not to learn to subvert the ego but rather to learn to advocate for themselves and for others whose needs are not met. They often need to find their voice and assert themselves to bring justice. And these religions – all led by men – too often don’t grapple with this issue because none of their founders and main teachers experienced life this way.
Brittney Hartley is especially lucid on these issues and has both a book and some very popular social media accounts where she posts videos on this and many other matters. She is a former Mormon and quite brilliant on everything to do with spirituality.
Conclusion
We began by saying the relationship of women and religion is complicated and hopefully the paragraphs above show why. It seems true that women are generally more religious than men. Religion has so often provided a lot to women, correlating with happiness and well-being, providing community and solace and resilience. In a world where insecurity is real and difficult, these are not small gains. In addition, there might be some natural alignment between women and religiosity owing to thinking styles and personality types as values like conscientiousness and agreeableness are encouraged by religions but are also areas that suit women and at which many naturally excel.
At the same time, regrettably, religions have too often promoted patriarchal ideas and ensconced hierarchies that exclude women. And in the past decade, a number of really insightful women have pointed out that even the central and widely admired teachings of so many religious founders, may be focusing on a male need to subvert their egos and selfish needs that, while admirable, perhaps does not always resonate with the needs of many women to find their voice and speak their truth.
The past few decades though have witnessed a revolution. Time and again, I have read about or witnessed firsthand how feminism is changing religions like perhaps no force in human history. Folks are reconsidering central teachings and doctrines, questioning the language of scriptures including translations, and forging changes to hiearchies. In part II, we will look at the feminist revolution. Until then, we wish you a happy International Women’s Day.
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