Gender and Religion | Beliefs in Society | AQA A-Level Sociology

welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video looking at beliefs in society focusing on gender and religion social research into levels of religious belief shows that in general women are more religious and are more likely to regularly practice religion than males breely found that in the uk over half a million more females than males attended

church in the early 21st century furthermore the pew research center suggested it is not just in religious attendance that women are overrepresented they measured that 83.4 of women professed to have faith compared to just 79.4 percent of males based on research published in 2016. more recently a yougov poll in the uk found that 48 of women believed in a god

compared to just 38 percent of males and ferguson and hussey found that across all religious groups with the exception of sikhs more females than males regularly practice religious beliefs in this video we're going to examine some of the theoretical explanations for these trends according to miller and hoffman there are three main reasons why women are

more religious than males firstly they argue that women are more risk averse than males and so are likely to not take risks with their beliefs in religion additionally as males take more risks they are less likely to seek out the security of religious belief this can also be applied to social approval women are less likely to risk social

stigma from not attending church whereas males are less controlled in society and so unlikely to conform secondly they argue that the process of gender socialization sees women take on the role of socializing children into society's norms and values and that includes church attendance furthermore the feminisation of religion with discussion of caring and nurturing