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Religiosity & social groups - Coggle Diagram
Religiosity & social groups
Women tend to be more
religious than men
Davie (2013), The facts
Most church goers are female
More women will say that they have a religion
Women are less likely to say that they're
agnostic or atheist
More women describe themselves as 'spiritual'
Apart from Sikhism, there are more
female partitioners in the uK
Reasons for gender differences
Men are more likely to take the risk that religion is wrong. Whereas women tend not to want to take that chance
Women are socialised to be passive, obedient and caring. Qualities that are valued by most religions.
Because women are more likely to work part time they have more time to ‘fit religion in’
They are also more likely to work with the young and the elderly (birth and death) which starts them asking the ultimate question about the meaning of life. (Davie 2013)
Bruce believes that religion has been pushed out of the workplace (where men tend to be) and into the home (where women tend to be) therefore making women more religious
Brown (2009) believes that we saw women withdrawing from religion in the 1960’s due to more women taking on masculine roles in the public sphere.
Bruce: Bruce says women tend to be less goal-orientated, more cooperative and less domineering (these are traits of femininity). These attributes fit well with religion and spirituality.
Bruce
Bruce says the world falls between the Public Sphere (paid work and politics) & Private Sphere (home, family and personal life)
Bruce agrees that secularisation is occurring, but also we are retreating from the public into the private sphere. Women are more involved in the private sphere than men, they can remain within religion through the private domain (especially New Age Movements / Cults)
Working Class women tend to continue to support religions which believe in an all powerful God and in which they are quite passive.
Middle Class women have more experience of controlling their lives and are more attracted to New Age groups in which individuals can develop their own spirituality.
Ethnic and religious gender differences
Although the biggest religious group is Christian (72%) many are black African or of Caribbean origin
There are also a significant number of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs- many of whom originate from the Indian sub-continent
Modood (1997) looked at participation and identification.
He found there were big differences in the importance attached to religion. Only 11% of white members of the C of E saw religion as very important in their lives, compared to 71% of Caribbean members of new Protestant churches, and 43% of Hindus and 74% of Muslims. Minority ethnic groups (with the exception of Chinese) were all more likely to attend places of worship than whites
Reasons for ethnic and religious differences
John bird
Many members of ethnic minority groups originate in societies that have high levels of religiosity such as Pakistan and the Caribbean.
Belonging to a minority ethnic group within a society means that religion can be an important basis for a sense of community and solidarity. It can give members a point of contact, sense of identity and introduce them to potential marriage partners.
Minority groups see religion as a way of maintaining cultural identity in terms of traditions, e.g. Food, language, art and music.
Socialisation can lead to strong pressure on children to maintain religious commitment (especially among Asian groups)
Religious beliefs may be a way to cope with oppression.
Brierley (2013)
Black people twice as likely to attend church than whites
Muslims, Hindus and black Christians- more likely to see religion as important and attend weekly religious worship than white Christians
Modood (1994) found that there has been a decline in importance of religion with all ethnic groups- especially second generation
Bruce
Accepts that ethnic minorities are more religious than whites in modern society, but believes religiosity is more an expression of community than religious commitment.
Religion is: Cultural Defence – using religion to protect identity in a hostile environment * Cultural Transition – religion is used to cope with the upheaval of migration
Bruce believes that over time the secular nature of British society will erode the importance of religion for ethnic minorities. Modood supports this. He found that younger Chinese, white and Afro Caribbean people were considerable less religious than their parents. He found that in some groups there was no decline between generations – particularly Muslims