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Are women more religious


Than men?

I don’t know how accurate the report is but in my observations, I have seen more women in churches than men, almost always and everywhere.

About makagutu

As Onyango Makagutu I am Kenyan, as far as I am a man, I am a citizen of the world

98 thoughts on “Are women more religious”

  1. Barry says:
    April 17, 2016 at 10:05

    Yes. In mainline churches in NZ, women outnumber men 2:1.

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  2. mybeautfulthings says:
    April 17, 2016 at 10:23

    We don’t visit many churches but where we do,I think your observation is correct. I wonder why that is…

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  3. roughseasinthemed says:
    April 17, 2016 at 10:26

    That was a fairly flimsy article from the economist. The comments were most varied with some very silly ones.
    Wasn’t this discussed on another blog post recentlyish looking at the reasons why more women attend church?

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    • makagutu says:
      April 17, 2016 at 10:33

      I guess the economist collected anecdotes and called it research. Some of their articles are so bad; catchy title and no content.
      Didn’t see that post

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  4. Barry says:
    April 17, 2016 at 11:42

    There is a very simple explanation for the disparity between the genders in NZ, and I presume in many Western countries. Demographics. The average age of church members in most of the mainline churches is the late sixties to late seventies. In this age bracket women outnumber men by a considerable number.

    However census statistics over more than a hundred years have shown that women are more religious than men.

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    • makagutu says:
      April 17, 2016 at 15:47

      When I used to attend church, there were always more women than men. And this was for the entire spectrum of the demographic.

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      • Barry says:
        April 17, 2016 at 16:02

        Here there’s a direct relationship between the average age of the congregation and the prevalence of females.

        One thing that worries me is that the only churches with demographics close to the national population is in the new evangelical/fundamentalist churches – American style fundamentalism. The mainstream churches will probably disappear within a decade or two as they are not getting new members. Unlike the new churches they mostly support gender and LGBT equality and are active in social

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        • makagutu says:
          April 17, 2016 at 16:04

          I hope the evangelicals do not become so many as to be a problem for the rest of the society

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          • Barry says:
            April 17, 2016 at 16:17

            Unfortunately they are the only churches that are growing. I’m not sure what the answer is. We have a high immigration rate, and a high proportion of them are of the evangelical fundamental Christian kind. More than ninety percent of immigrants from places such as the Philippines and the Pacific Islands are very conservative and evangelical

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      • Barry says:
        April 17, 2016 at 16:08

        Oops. Hit post too soon. The older churches are active in social matters such as housing, dispute resolution, environmental issues etc, whereas the new ones only seem to be interested in pushing their hatred of LGBT, and the subservient role of women.

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      • archaeopteryx1 says:
        April 17, 2016 at 17:08

        Sounds like a great place to meet chicks –!

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  5. inspiredbythedivine1 says:
    April 17, 2016 at 14:58

    As an American, I must say, that yes, more women attend church than men. But, as any TruChristian American can tell you, in the eyes of god and Jesus, only men count. If you doubt this, read the bible. So, it really doesn’t matter what woman do. Men are all that matter to god.
    This TruChristian message has been brought to you by the TruChristian Misogynist Society of America. Help keep them in power this fall by voting early and voting Republican. $Amen$

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  6. archaeopteryx1 says:
    April 17, 2016 at 15:13

    According to Bart Ehrman, women were certainly predominant in the early Christian church.

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  7. john zande says:
    April 17, 2016 at 18:18

    Absolutely. In our street we have a Mary cult organised by a bunch of local women. They share a statue among themselves, and meet for songs and chanting every few weeks.

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  8. clubschadenfreude says:
    April 17, 2016 at 18:31

    a lot of women are taught that they need to be led. they look for the nearest authority figure, and that is usually a church.

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  9. tildeb says:
    April 17, 2016 at 20:19

    I don’t think it’s that difficult to understand why women raised in a deeply paternalistic society might be more attracted to the Head Guy than guys might be. Many of the nuns I know have far more than just a ‘thing’ for the Jesus fellow; they’re actually married to this absentee landlord but never have to pick up after him.

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  10. Robert A. Vella says:
    April 17, 2016 at 21:19

    A 3.5% difference between women and men, while noteworthy, suggests causative factors other than gender. From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-more-religious-than-men_us_5702a514e4b0a06d58064516

    “It’s not entirely clear why these gender disparities exist, but researchers have considered a range of sources, including varying biology, psychology, genetics, family environment, social status, workforce participation and a lack of ‘existential security’ felt by many women because they generally are more afflicted than men by poverty, illness, old age and violence, Pew said.

    The answer likely involves multiple factors, but there is still disagreement about which issues matter more, Pew reported.

    Interestingly, women who work tended to report being less religious than women who don’t earn a salary, even when the researchers accounted for other factors, such as education level, age and marital status, Pew said.

    This analysis about the beliefs of employed women suggests that women are not universally more religious than men, but that their devoutness could be the result of nurture (for instance, social and cultural factors) rather than nature (for example, biological or evolutionary forces).”

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  11. Swarn Gill says:
    April 17, 2016 at 21:29

    I think there could be a number of reasons. Being a very patriarchal religion is could be that church is one place where they feel like they have more status (through volunteering with the church), or just the fact that they get to socialize. I know that the social aspect is huge for women. In a lot of religions not just Christianity, that temple/church/mass is where the big gossip sessions occur. A somewhat superficial way to feel more important, but I think in a patriarchal society that might have some appeal It’s also possible that they simply go to get away from their husbands for while. I know for my mom church was a sanctuary for a few hours where she could talk to people, because my dad’s alcoholism and he would often just be binge drinking on weekends leaving my mom with little to do.

    In the U.S. a majority of women are for the democratic party as well…not that there is necessarily a lot of overlap, but I do think that there may be some of the more compassionate aspects of the religion. Just like many seek religion as a way out of their oppression, perhaps women do too, to seek some refuge from the patriarchy.

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    • ubi dubium says:
      April 17, 2016 at 23:40

      Rebecca Goldstein has an important point to make in this area. She talks about the concept of “mattering”. People have an intrinsic need to have their lives matter. For men in a strongly patriarchal society, finding a way to “matter” is pretty easy, but for women it’s a lot harder. Organized religion is one of the few ways that women in that situation can fill this need. They may have no job, little education, and nothing but childbearing and hard work and drudgery at home, but church gives them opportunities to be important (at least among the church ladies) as well as offering the promise of “your life matters to god”. It’s not the “gossip sessions”, it’s teaching Sunday School and VBS, singing in the choir, organizing social events, sending casseroles to the sick, etc etc. Even if your life sucks, your spouse is lazy and abusive, and nobody knows or cares who you are, for some women church allows them to be somebody. It’s hard to compete with that.

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      • Swarn Gill says:
        April 18, 2016 at 00:08

        I agree, and I was simply offering up multiple possibilities, the first one I mentioned was status, which is what you’ve said here. I agree that it seems to make the most sense.

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    • makagutu says:
      April 18, 2016 at 09:23

      There are women, I hear, in this city who almost every other evening have a church thing to attend. Maybe you have a point. Some husbands are impossible and one needs a break from them

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  12. ubi dubium says:
    April 17, 2016 at 23:13

    This has been one of the continuing topics tackled at the Women in Secularism conferences. The question “Are women more religious than men?” has a clear answer: Yes.

    But that leads to two more questions: (1) Why? and (2) Can anything be done about it?

    Exploring the “why” question is complicated. From a U.S standpoint (which may or may not be applicable elsewhere) a lot of the answer seems to wrapped up in community. Women, particularly women raising children, and especially low-income women, are often dependent on the social support network offered by churches. That’s where their friends are, that’s where their child care is organized, that’s where support comes from if they are ill, it’s just a big part of their lives. Leaving religion means losing that support network, and for many people maintaining that network is more important than whether their dogmas are true. I’m much more of a loner than most women, and don’t easily integrate into groups like that, and that may be part of why I had an easier time leaving religion.

    Part of allowing women to reconsider religion, then, is making sure that the support they need is available to them outside the church structure. Stronger social services and groups like Sunday Assembly I think are an important part of this. But I think a lot more study is also needed on this subject.

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    • makagutu says:
      April 18, 2016 at 08:29

      You raise very many valid points.
      And I also think a lot more study is needed on the subject.
      One would think in Muslim majority countries, men are just as devout as the women.

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      • ubi dubium says:
        April 18, 2016 at 19:06

        That’s a study I’d like to see. Though getting accurate results would be difficult, because how many men in Muslim countries that aren’t believers would be willing to tell anybody?

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  13. shelldigger says:
    April 18, 2016 at 16:44

    I honestly believe that if it weren’t for women, the number of men attending church would drop 50% 🙂

    A LOT of guys would much rather go fishing on Sunday. Even though they may be religious.

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