Does Religion Suppress Gender Differences in Values? A Cross-National Examination

Abstract

Women are typically more liberal than men. But on some issues related to "traditional moral values"-including sexuality and the beginning and end of life-women are just as if not more conservative than men. This study examines the role of religion in complicating the relationship between gender and values cross-nationally, with particular attention to variation across religious groups and contexts. Using data from a diverse set of 56 countries in the World Values Survey (N=85,181), I find that religiousness suppresses what would otherwise be larger and more consistent gender differences in values among Christians. Among most other groups, including Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and Muslims in non-Muslim contexts, religiousness does not greatly alter gender differences in values. However, among Muslims in Muslim-majority contexts-where men tend to be more religious than women-religiousness amplifies what would otherwise be smaller gender differences in values. Accordingly, gender differences in values tend to be larger among Muslims than Christians. I conclude that religions are complex and powerful social structures with heterogeneous social consequences. Keywords Gender Differences in Values 2Women tend to be more liberal than men. In many contexts, women are more likely to claim liberal identities, espouse egalitarian values, and vote for progressive politicians (Beutel and Marini 1995;Box-Steffensmeier, DeBoef, and Lin 2004;Charrad 2011;Davis and Robinson 1991;Hadler 2012;Inglehart and Norris 1999;Manza and Brooks 1998;McDermott 2016;Pratto, Stallworth, and Sidanius 1997;Shapiro and Mahajan 1986). Yet, in a gender-and-politics paradox, women are just as if not more conservative than men on certain issues related to notions of "traditional morality"-including gender-related issues such as abortion-in at least some contexts (Barkan 2014;Schnabel 2018). In another gender paradox, religion tends to be mendominated and yet women-populated . Historic religious figures and current religious leaders are predominantly men, and religion often promotes patriarchal beliefs and gender inequality (Edgell 2006;Edgell and Docka 2007;Schnabel 2016a).Nevertheless, women being more religious than men is one of the most consistent findings in the social sciences (Hoffmann 2009). Although the gender gap in religion is frequently noted, its political repercussions are largely ignored (but see Rinehart and Perkins 1989). As I will demonstrate, gender differences in religion help explain the gender-and-politics paradox on certain "traditional moral values" 2 related to sexuality and the beginning and end of life.In this study, I argue that religion intersects with social status characteristics such as gender and that the social consequences of religiosity vary across religious groups and contexts (Read and Eagle 2014;Schnabel 2016b;Stewart, Frost, and Edgell 2017;Wilde and Glassman 2016 Christianity specifically may be a feminine-typed "underdog" religion, appealing more to women based on gendered social norms and women...

Pobreza, desigualdad y religión: creencias religiosas y atribuciones causales de la pobreza en México

“…La propensión de ser mujer y sostener tanto atribuciones estructurales como fatalistas se explica, por un lado, con "el principio de los desvalidos" y las teorías relacionadas que dicen que las mujeres, en tanto grupo históricamente desaventajado, tienden a desarrollar una mayor conciencia de la opresión y la desigualdad estructural (Schnabel, 2018); por otro lado, porque la religión continúa siendo una fuerza social ambivalente con respecto a la violencia contra el cuerpo y la sexualidad de las mujeres, lo que ha llevado a muchas mujeres a interiorizar formas de violencia simbólica y a asumir como justas o perennes formas de discriminación, desigualdad e incluso violencia en su contra (Servitje Montull, 2021).…”