Gender Differences in Religious Belief Essay

critically examine the proportionship amongst sex, sacred fortuneicipation and spectral organisation Studies of religious belief verify consistently that the pistillate gender turn ins great conflict to holiness than that of males. This great commit manpowert to holiness depict by sociologists such as Bensen applies passim the course of the charrs life, and as utteranced by Glock and Stark, their greater betroth to corporate trust is consistent regardless of the religious organization, whether it be clean Religious move ments, raw long time unearthlyity, or customsal faiths. Beit-hallahmy and argyle state that whether it is a matter of reclusive churchgoing or private suppliant and regardless of religious belief women surface much(prenominal) religious than men.Religions universally suffer been implant to be deeply authoritarian to women, born from ancient teachings indicating their inferiority to men. Writers exchangeable de Beauvoir and Sadwai fol low through organized morality and religious ideology as playing a part in maintaining male domination that is order in most aspects of contemporary societal life. In religious scriptures women sorb the lesser position De Beauvoir highlights how scriptures in most religions paint a picture that man is master by cleric right and Aldridge explains how in the Quran women ar legitimately inferior to men.Why, then, do women observe a faith which encourages their oppression, more so than the gender with the power to dominate it? Biological figures put down with Miller and Hoffmans explanation that women involve fewer risks than men and as a result undertake to conform to a groups religious identity operator rather than undertake the challenge of representation and autonomy. Men more a great deal jib the religious beliefs of the mainstream and engage in risk-taking behaviors. tally to Stark this risk taking intention in a man to not think ahead opines that men argon l ess religious because they argon willing to take a hazard on there not world an futurity. However sociologists like Freese and Montgomery count this argument works on an effrontery that every sensation makes the same risk assessment when in fact men atomic subjugate 18 fair more prep bed to take that risk.Roth produced a study which showed there to be a smaller breakout between genders in the percentage who believe in an afterlife just a large gap in those who break attendance and request to religion, suggesting women just participate actively more than men. Armstrong states that biological differences between men and women gave substance to male domination patriarchal montheism has replaced polysthetic beliefs which promoted the component part of the feminine in fraternity, for which raise was found by archeologists in the form of old(a) statues of goddesses. He argues that natural male invasion was the tool apply to manipulate religion into a patriarchal insti tution.The socializations built upon this biology, are of men to be strong and domineering, and of women to be passive, obedient, and nurturing, which according to Mol, are the qualities associated with religiosity. Miller and Hoffman evince that gender socialisation makes women more cooperative and caring, and this butt end leads to m all explanations for their greater club in religion. One is their map of guardians in family life. Bruce states that womens child bearing and nurture experiences for instance develop their traits as nurturers as opposed to confrontational and goal seeking.Luckmann progress explains that women pretend a greater debt instrument for rearing children and participate to a lesser degree in the labor force, exit them with more time for church-related activities and a greater need for a ascendant of in-person identity and commitment. Women are more apt(predicate) to take on the task of the chaste development of their child along with the stand-i n of their duties in socializing a child. thither is an outlook for women to be defenders of tradition and Halman and Draulans note that these lineaments give women a greater accent on the family. Luckmann in like manner highlights how womens reference as a housewife gives them lesser participation in the labor force, divergence them with more time for church-related activities and a greater need for a source of ain identity and commitment.They are more apparent to experience emplacement frustration, born from the constraints of house tutelage and child forethought or the unsatisfying dispirit middle class jobs which are in general done by women. Religious participation can regenerate identity and give women focus, because where men gain individuality with work, women revive their low sense of expense through religion. Religious faith and devote can enhance psychological offbeat by organism a source of comfort to women in times of inconvenience and by enhancing thei r social interaction with early(a)s in places of worship. more(prenominal) responsive and sensitive record traits in a woman mean they are more potential to analyse emotional wellbeing and not alone seek solace in religion bit find meaning and habit in life. Personality was be prove as a key factor by Thompson, who found that men who cause those qualities more commonly found in women, such as predisposition , were also more likely to be religious.Reasons other than oppression that lead a high(prenominal) percentage of women to respond to their environment and pursue happiness through religion are the increased levels of poverty they experience. Official figures show women are 14% more likely than men to lead in households with incomes that are 60% below the national average. More frequently diagnosed mental illness and economic crisis in women can explain their higher(prenominal) contribution to religion, as cults, sects as a social network and comfort for women extran eous the isolation of the home or of their minds. Womens tend to be more loose about sharing personal problems and are more relational than men which is further in the close knit friendship of a sect.The intimacy of the private subject can also replicate womens compass of the home whilst theodicies explaining their findings and offering solutions warrant their role as a woman. New Religious Movements such as cults are also slackly more public with women because of cult focus on self-discovery and fulfilment, which correlates with the womanish inclination towards self-criticism and self-improvement, due to their suffering higher levels of marginalisation and lack of self-confidence. Some evidence contradicts the male role as non-spiritual however, as Davie found there is an equal spiritual confidence in the existence of ghosts between genders. A key to understanding redbrick womens higher participation in religion is the shifts in demographic trends.Brierlys study found th at in 1979 the balance of male church goers were 45% but in 1989 it had dropped to 42%. The ratio of live females to live males rises steadily and correspondingly a disproportionate number of elderly women seek refuge in the church in response to loneliness or cheering philosophy nearing the end of their lives. Davie explains how women are more actively responsive to religion because males and females have differing visions of God males associate him with power and status whereas women associate with his traits of love, comfort and forgiveness which explains their greater involvement in community religions.They are more concerned with people orientation course than control. Female differences in nature also explains the particular appeal of New Age ideas revolved around well-being and vehemence relief. Concepts such as herbalism, yoga and meditation, homeopathy, aromatherapy and massage, horoscopes, astrology, fortune-telling are potently associated with females, according to G lendinning and Bruce. This recent marketization of religion often promotes earthly concepts which are more link up to femininity and female empowerment than the tradition of male domination. develop Gaia, the theory of Mother Earth as a keep entity, is more appealable to women for instance. Womens heightened otherworldliness can be attributed to their greater role in biological life processes. Walter and Davie see women as more emotionally subject to the ups and downs of life because of childbirth, and their nurturing role as teachers, care assistants, social workers, and so on, and also the expectation that they be unpaid carers for vulnerable family members.This heightens their sensitivity and attunes the spiritual dimension of human existence, because as Davie argues, these factors give women a closer intimacy with birth and death which are generally central concepts of religion. As females live longer than men some studies have shown that many widowed women may turn to r eligion for the comfort of reassuring philosophies and social networks. It is affirmable that some women take refuge from some of the theoretical oppressions bore by religion. Swatos dialogue of the fulfilment that can be had from being a second class citizenship. womens liberationist writers like Walby and be Beauvoir suggest that the teaching of many of the worlds religions stomach an ideology of the family which emphasises womens traditional roles as wives and mothers in the family. Some women, however, are sharp to take on this role.Barrett and Pryce, for instance, highlight how Rastafarianism assumes the womans position as a housewife and mother as a protection from inner and racial abomination in the outside world. On one hand this gives ultimate power to men by denying female participation to society in the name of protection, but some more introverted Rastafarian women may enjoy this safety within the sphere of the home. A similar contradiction of female subjugation i s the veil whilst Aldridge notes the hijab in Islamic assimilations as a symbol of patriarchy, degrading women to a state of invisibility and keeping them devoid of identity, some women find anonymity to be protective from the judgement and sexual degradation of men.A growing number of Western Muslims have taken to draining the veil to in fact reinstate a female identity enjoin from their face writers like Ahmed and Watson argue that the gauze bandage of ones face can be a way to turn down the patriarchy and sexual objectification of Western culture which views women as visual objects. Faiths as a majority oppose the admission of women to leaders in religious organisations.A paronomasia of the stained glass ceiling is used as a pun by sociologists to explain how women are maintained at the bottom of the career ladder to pledge within the church, and barred completely from the priesthood in Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism, which is seemingly discriminatory, but perhap s female role models within religious doctrines presented as pocket-size and nurturing figures have had such an influence on the identity of a religious women that they feel more comfortable in a non-domineering role. Examples can be taken from any religion proving the sub-ordinance of women taught by most faith systems.The socialisation of women to be obedient and take on the follower role fashion they are further likely to be a willing follower of religion. boilersuit social, psychological, and biological factors interlink to form explanations for greater female participation in religion and religious organisation. The gravity of female relation to religion as an explanation, compensator, duty, and social volcano mean that their commitment is likely to stay put regardless of the injustices and subjugations it bears upon the gender.