Why are Women more Religious than Men?

Marta Trzebiatowska and Steve Bruce

The first book - length critical review of a topic of perennial interest
Provides a clear summary of contemporary social research evidence
Includes omprehensive review of the arguments to date
Takes a novel approach to the question and draws some strong conclusions

Why are Women more Religious than Men?

Marta Trzebiatowska and Steve Bruce

Description

Women are more religious than men. Despite being excluded from leadership positions, in almost every culture and religious tradition, women are more likely than men to pray, to worship, and to claim that their faith is important to them. Women also dominate the world of "New Age" spirituality and are far more superstitious than men.

This book reviews the now-sizeable body of social research to consider if the gender gap in religion is indeed universal. Marta Trzebiatowska and Steve Bruce extensively critique competing explanations of the differences found. They conclude that the gender gap is not the result of biology but is rather the consequence of important social differences over-lapping and reinforcing each other. Responsibility for managing birth, child-rearing and death, for example, and attitudes to the body, illness and health, each play a part. In the West, the gender gap is exaggerated because the social changes that undermined the plausibility of religion bore most heavily on men first. Where the lives of men and women become more similar, and where religious indifference grows, the gender gap gradually disappears.

Written in an accessible style whilst drawing some robust conclusions, the book's main purpose is to serve as a state-of-the-art review for those interested in one of the largest differences between male and female behavior.

Why are Women more Religious than Men?

Marta Trzebiatowska and Steve Bruce

Why are Women more Religious than Men?

Marta Trzebiatowska and Steve Bruce

Author Information

Marta Trzebiatowska is a Lecturer in Sociology at University of Aberdeen.

Steve Bruce is Professor of Sociology at University of Aberdeen.

Why are Women more Religious than Men?

Marta Trzebiatowska and Steve Bruce

Reviews and Awards

"[This] work is at its most compelling when it touches on the interaction of gender and religion with other social differences such as race ... Trzebiatowska and Bruce's book is accessible and a timely resource." --Theology

"The book is, in sum, a stimulating stab at drawing up a map of the parts of the literature that the authors find interesting. It is a light, quick read, which is refreshingly well written and well edited." -- Journal of Contemporary Religion

"In sum, the book likely will find its strongest readership within European contexts where secularization theory is still regarded as a primary explanation for the contemporary absence of explicitly religious, especially Christian, participation,and practice. The summary points found in the conclusion are worthy of consideration... Finally, the value of the authors' causal response to the title question of the book embedded in the point on lagged secularization depends ultimately on an interpretation of the secularization thesis from their vantage point." --Sociology of Religion