This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Working as a Christian minister years ago, Landon Schnabel noticed a paradox common to many U.S. churches: Men filled leadership roles, implying that religion is masculine and patriarchal, but many more women participated in services, Bible study and other activities. Now an associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, Schnabel learned that researchers have long interpreted this disparity as evidence that women are inherently more religious than men, and have treated that idea as a universal fact.
But not all religions demonstrate gender gaps in religiosity, Schnabel argues in a new book, "Is Faith Feminine? What Americans Really Think About Gender and Religion," and gender gaps are shaped by external forces rather than internal natures, he writes. Drawing upon gender theory, social psychology and new national surveys that oversample Jewish, Muslim and secular Americans, along with international data, Schnabel introduces a new theory that distinguishes between organized and individual faith and reveals differences across faith traditions.
The analysis connects gendered religion to political polarization and the rise of individualized spirituality. "The same gendered forces that created the original 'men in the pulpit, women in the pews' paradox are, in the 2020s, driving a historic transformation," Schnabel writes. "The paradox is resolving itself through a sorting that separates those who find meaning in managed religious environments from those who seek dynamic and expressive encounters with the sacred." Schnabel discussed the book with the Chronicle.
Answer: It depends on which part of religion people look at. When the Americans I surveyed explained why religion struck them as feminine, they talked about personal faith, its comfort and its care for others. When it struck them as masculine, they talked about the institution, often calling it "patriarchal." It also depends on whose religion it is.
People tend to judge their own faith by the believers they know and other faiths by their institutions. That helps explain why Muslims in my surveys most often picked "gentle" and "comforting" to describe Islam, while the mostly Christian general public picked "assertive" and "dominant." Christianity, the faith tradition most Americans know from the inside, also has teachings that prize humility, gentleness and compassion, traits American culture treats as feminine. Among the best known are services built for men: "cowboy church," "biker church" and even "fight church," where pastors step into mixed martial arts cages.
When I was a minister, I tried milder versions, such as basketball nights and backpacking trips, and quickly learned that having some activities that men tend to do won't address underlying push and pull factors. As a sociologist, I came to see why: Religion can offer women more and can expect more of them than of men. Despite creative efforts, women still fill most of the pews in American churches.
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