New Study: Which Gender is the Most Religious?

By Elisa Meyer --
30 Mar 2016 --

New research indicates globally who values religion more, women or men.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, in America, women give more importance to religion than men. They pray on a daily basis, and they take part in religious services once a week at least. Comparatively, less number of men pray daily, and less number of men take part in religious services. This even prompted some of the clergies to change their style of worship to attract more men into their congregations.

New Study: Which Gender is the Most Religious?[/tweetthis]

According to social scientists, the same is the case on a universal level as well. The explanation for this phenomenon provided by the social scientists, on a controversial note, is that the religious gap that exists between men and women is more biological in nature. It stems from higher testosterone levels in men or from genetic and physical differences between men and women.

Women may be more religious than men, however, if you look at history, most of the prominent religious leaders were men. For example, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, and so on. It has been predominantly male leaders. Most of the leadership roles in Church are exclusively restricted to men. For instance, in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, only men may serve as deacons or priests or bishops or as the Pope.

Muslim women are mostly guided by the various laws of Islam and cultural customs. The laws and the customs have a big impact on the different wakes of a Muslim woman's life, like education, dressing, employment opportunities, freedom to consent to marriage, and so on.

Pew Research Center is an organization that provides information on public opinion, social issues, and demographic trends shaping America and the world. The organization conducted many surveys on the gender gap in religion and has so far collected a lot of information on the topic. The surveys were based on Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and the religiously unaffiliated. The gender gap in religion has been a subject of debate for decades, still is. Based on the surveys, it has been concluded that women are more religious or devout than men by various standard measures of religious commitment. However, in some countries, like the Arab countries, men display a higher level of commitment than women.

When it comes to religious commitment, larger gender gap among Christians (women more relig than men) than Muslims https://t.co/URdjeuSUEm
— Claudia Deane (@c_deane) March 23, 2016

According to the Pew Research Center study, women affiliate with a religious faith, more than men, globally. On the basis of religion, when it comes to attending religious services in religious institutions, Orthodox Jew men, and Muslim men attend services held at Synagogues and Mosques, more than women. The reason for that may be the fact that for Muslim men, it is an obligation to attend Friday midday prayers (communal) in the mosque, whereas, for the Muslim women, it is not mandatory that they pray in the Mosque. They can pray outside the Mosque as well.

It is also the finding of the Center that both men and women somewhat equally believe in angels, heaven, and hell, globally, except in Lebanon and Pakistan, where more men than women believe in heaven, hell, and angels.