Religion (1997) 27, 81–96

SURVEY ARTICLE

The Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion:

A Review of Empirical Research
L J. F

This paper presents, discusses and evaluates empirical studies concerned with gender
differences in religion. Within the psychology of religion two main groups of theories
have been advanced to account for gender differences in religiosity. The first group of
theories concentrates on social or contextual influences which shape different responses
to religion among men and women. This group may be divided into two categories:
gender role socialisation theories and structural location theories. The second group of theories
concentrates on personal or individual psychological characteristics which differentiate
between men and women. This group may be divided into three categories: depth
psychology theories, personality theories and gender orientation theories. It is concluded that
gender orientation theories provide the most fruitful source for further research.
? 1997 Academic Press Limited

Introduction
A number of text books in the psychology of religion assert that gender differences in
religiosity are among the best attested findings in the field. For example, Argyle and
Beit-Hallahmi (1975) wrote as follows:

The differences between men and women in their religious behaviour and beliefs are
considerable... This is therefore one of the most important of the statistical comparisons
to be made in this book.

At first glance the statistical evidence seems unequivocal that women are more religious
than men (see the appendix). In spite of the apparently overwhelming agreement of the
statistical evidence, some commentators in the psychology of religion disagree strongly
with the conclusion put forward by Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1975). For example,
Deconchy (1973) wrote as follows:

The idea that women are more ‘religious’ than men is a particularly prevalent
assumption. In the final analysis, the idea that women are ‘more religious’ than men is
as unsoundly based, philosophically and empirically, as it is apparently self-evident to
some people.

Similarly, Feltey and Poloma (1991) argue that ‘stereotypes about women being more
religious are misleading’.
The real major source of controversy, however, is less concerned with establishing the
empirical grounds for the observation that females are more religious than with
establishing a satisfactory theoretical basis to provide an adequate account of the reasons
for the observed difference. Within the psychology of religion two main groups of
theories have been advanced to account for gender differences in religiosity (Francis,
1996). The first group of theories concentrates on social or contextual influences which

0048–721X/97/010081+16 $25.00/0/rl960066 ? 1997 Academic Press Limited

82 L. J. Francis

shape different responses to religion among men and women. This group may be
divided into two categories: gender role socialisation theories and structural location theories.
The second group of theories concentrates on personal or individual psychological
characteristics which differentiate between men and women. This group may be divided
into three categories: depth psychology theories, personality theories and gender orientation
theories.

Gender Role Socialisation Theories

Gender role socialisation theories begin not from individual differences in the psycho-
logical experiences of males and females but from the differences in their social
experiences. Mol (1985), for example, argues that:

males of all classes in modern western society are socialised into thinking and believing
that drive and aggressiveness are positive orientations. They learn to cope with conflict
and play it often as an institutional game. Specific goals are primary and conflict
resolution secondary. . . Both the emphasis on accomplishment and the consequent
playing of the rough conflict game need legitimation. The source of this legitimation
of the male ethos in our culture is secular rather than religious because steely neutrality
rather than emotional surrender (love) serves its purpose better.

By contrast, the socialisation of females is said to emphasise conflict resolution,

submission, gentleness, nurturance, and other expressive values that are congruent with
religious emphases.
In a similar vein, Nelsen and Powin (1981) argue that both gender role socialisation
and parent-child interaction generally place more emphasis on religiousness and
conformity for girls than for boys. Because of the different socialisation experiences of
males and females, they conclude that gender differences on the part of adolescents
should be expected on the private but not the public dimension, while for the public
dimension males and females should react fairly similarly to public pressures. They also
argue that differences on the private dimension should exist for youths who have church
like but not sect like religious identifications, especially if the sect places high emphasis on
the conversion experiences of males. Using a national sample of 13–18 year old
adolescents in the U.S.A., they provide some support for the socialisation theory
by demonstrating predicted differences in gender effects between denomination,
geographical regions and aspects of religiosity.
The strength of gender role socialisation theories to account for gender differences in
religiosity is eroded by societal trends which may encourage treating boys and girls in
similar ways.

Structural Location Theories

Structural location theories also begin from a sociological rather than a psychological
basis. There are two main forms of structural location theory advanced to account for
greater religiosity among women. The first form emphasises the child rearing role of
women. For example, Moberg (1962) argues that the family-centred role of women
encourages dependence on personal influences and that religion, which deals with
personality, is therefore more appreciated by women than by men. Martin (1967) argues
that parents feel that the church is good for their children. As the primary caretakers
mothers attend church to encourage their children’s involvement. In favour of this
structural location theory, Glock, Ringer and Babbie (1967) argue that men and women
 Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion 83

have different social roles, which they characterized as the family role of the mother and
the economic role of the father. They then proceed to argue that, as the bonds between
family and church are still relatively strong, in comparison with the bonds between
economy and church, females who are more heavily involved in the family role may be
expected to be more church-oriented. In a similar vein, Nelsen and Nelsen (1975) write
that women:
are expected to be the prime socialisers of their children and as part of this to teach
their offspring morals. This they accomplish in part by being examples themselves,
attending church and evincing religious interests. Men are assigned roles that are more
instrumental than socio-emotional and thus are less concerned with problems of
morality.

Azzi and Ehrenberg (1975) suggest that church attendance is higher for females than for
males partially because religious participation is an extension of the division of labour
within the home. In this sense religious participation is considered a household activity
performed by the wife who is more able to allocate the necessary time. In a similar vein,
Iannaccone (1990) sees religion as a household commodity reflecting an implicit
division of labour.
De Vaus (1982) formulated a set of specific hypotheses on the basis of this form of
structural location theory. He argues that the theory implies that mothers will attend
church more than childless women; that having children will lead to greater church
attendance for women than for men; and that the difference between church attendance
rates of men and women with children will be greater than between childless men and
women. Testing these hypotheses on data derived from the National Opinion Research
Centre general social survey data between 1972 and 1980, De Vaus found that mothers
attended church more than childless women. At the same time, however, they also
found that fathers attended church more than childless men. Moreover, the difference
in church attendance between mothers and fathers was no greater than between men
and women without children. These hypotheses are further tested by De Vaus and
McAllister (1987) on data from the 1983 Australian Values Survey. Once again the
theory is not supported by the data.
Two counter arguments are also advanced against this form of structural location
theory by Glock, Ringer and Babbie (1967). The first argument suggests that
responsibility for children is time consuming and is more likely to detract from church
involvement than to promote it. The second argument suggests that the church is likely
to act as a family surrogate for childless people and therefore attract a higher proportion,
rather than a lower proportion, of childless people. Empirical support for the family
surrogate thesis is, however, also weak. It is not supported, for example, by Hobart
(1974), Hoge and Carroll (1978), Hoge and Polk (1980), Roof and Hoge (1980) and
Christiano (1986).
The second form of structural location theory advanced to account for the greater
religiosity of women emphasises the different place of women in the workforce. One
strand of this argument is a development of the classic secularisation theses, as illustrated
by Lenski (1953), Martin (1967) and Luckman (1967). According to this argument,
religious involvement declines with participation in the modern secular world. Since
women are less likely to be fully a part of the ongoing secular world, at least in terms of
outside-the-home employment, they are also likely to be less secularised than men.
A similar case is advanced by Stannard (1977) describing the historical development of
life in New England. He writes that:
84 L. J. Francis

As men were drawn into commercial life, religion became the province of women—
and throughout the centuries, beginning first at the close of the seventeenth and
continuing on into the eighteenth century, the proportion of women to men in
church membership rose.

A second strand of this argument suggests that women seek social support from religion
to alleviate the greater isolation they experience as a consequence of not benefitting
from the social contacts of the workplace (Moberg, 1962); that women seek comfort
from religion to compensate for not benefitting from the more socially valued role of
the wage earner (Yinger, 1970). A third strand of this argument suggests that women are
more likely than men to avoid the conflicts between the competitiveness of the
workplace and the essence of Christian values which in turn leads to a greater distance
from the churches (De Vaus, 1984). A fourth strand of this argument simply suggests
that lower commitment to the workplace releases more time for women to devote to
the church (Glock, Ringer and Babbie, 1967).
De Vaus (1984) formulated a set of specific hypotheses on the basis of this form of
structural location theory. He argues that the theory implies that when level of
workforce participation is held constant the gender difference in religiosity should
evaporate; that women who are in employment should be less religious than women
who are not in employment; and that men who are not in employment should be more
religious than men who are in employment. Testing these hypotheses on data derived
from the National Opinion Research Centre general social survey data between 1972
and 1980, De Vaus found that, even when level of workforce participation is held
constant, more women attend church than men. Indeed, contrary to the hypothesis,
men who were not working full-time were less likely to attend church regularly than
men who were working full-time. Other empirical studies also contradict these
hypotheses. For example, Lazerwitz (1961) demonstrated that working women attend
church as frequently as non-working women, while Francis (1984b) demonstrated
that unemployed young people were less likely to attend church than those in
employment.
De Vaus and McAllister (1987) tested these hypotheses further on data from the 1983
Australian Values Survey, using indices of religious commitment, belief and experiences
as well as church attendance. In this analysis they found some support for the theory.
Their data demonstrated that women who work full-time are less religious than women
who are full-time housewives; and that the religious orientation of women in the
workforce is very similar to that of men in the workforce, although women who work
full-time actually attend church less than men who work full-time. On the other hand,
unemployed males are the least religious of all.
Ulbrich and Wallace (1984), using a sub-group of 476 Christian women who either
worked full-time or not at all from the 1980 National Opinion Research Centre general
social survey, found that working women attended church less often than housewives.
However, further analyses suggested that the two groups differed in a number of other
ways in addition to their employment status. For example, the working women were
younger and less likely to have a spouse of the same religion. The authors concluded
that:

working women may come from a different ‘pool’ from non-working women and no
conclusion can clearly be drawn about how these women will behave as they age—
whether they will become more religious and consequently attend more often or
whether their distinctiveness is permanent.
 Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion 85

Gee (1991) explored the relationship between labour force participation and church
attendance on data from the Canadian General Social Survey, selecting the sub-sample
of self-identified Catholics and Protestants who attend church more often than ‘never’.
According to these data, among full-time workers there is no significant difference
between men and women in levels of church attendance. However, among part-time
workers and non-workers women are significantly more likely to be regular attenders
than men. Thus, among full-time workers, 54% of men and 55% of women attend
church regularly; among part-time workers, 46% of men and 62% of women attend
church regularly; among non-workers 59% of men and 67% of women attend church
regularly. Interpretation of these findings, however, is made problematic by the nature
of the sub-sample on whom the analyses are undertaken.
A contrary argument, however, is raised by a group of studies which suggest that any
correlation between levels of religiosity and participation in the workforce by women
should be explained by a different causal model according to which women who are
more committed to religion should be less willing to enter the workforce, preferring to
maintain more traditional family oriented roles. For example, Morgan and Scanzoni
(1987), in a survey of 325 female college students, found that their current religious
devoutness predicted their intentions to enter the labour force and pursue a career. Jones
and McNamara (1991), in a sample of undergraduate women, found that intrinsic
religious orientation was a predictor of intentions to remain at home during children’s
early years, although extrinsic religious orientation did not predict this intention. On
data derived from 1,431 female members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, Chadwick and Garrett (1995) demonstrated that a large proportion of the
women cited their religious beliefs as a significant determinant of their decision whether
or not to work outside the home. Partial confirmation of the theory is also provided by
Hertel (1988).
The strength of structural location theories to account for gender differences
in religiosity is eroded by social trends which may encourage providing similar
opportunities for males and females.

Depth Psychology
The best documented psychological theory advanced to account for gender differences
in religiosity has its roots in a Freudian perspective of psychoanalytic theory. According
to Freud (1950), ‘God is in every case modelled after the father’, and our personal
relation to God is dependent upon our relation to our physical father. Batson,
Schoenrade and Ventis (1993) argue that:

When the idea of God as a projected father figure is considered in the context of
Freud’s analysis of infantile sexuality, it is easy to predict sex differences in interest in
religion. Boys are supposed to emerge from the Oedipus complex with ambivalent
feelings toward their father; the father is feared because he is a more powerful
competitor for the affections of the mother, but he is also emulated. Accordingly, men
should feel ambivalence toward God, the projected father. In contrast, girls should
have a less ambivalent, more positive attachment to their father; he is the love object
of their infantile sexuality. Projecting these feelings on to God, women should be more
attracted to God.

Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1975) note that Catholicism offers a mother figure alongside
the father figure in the form of the Virgin Mary and suggests that this may explain why
Catholicism may attract a higher proportion of men than Protestantism.
86 L. J. Francis

A strand of empirical research which tests aspects of this Freudian based theory
compares images of God with images of the male and female parents (Vergote and
Tamayo, 1981). The findings from this strand of research are far from consistent or
conclusive. Four main trends can be identified. First, Vergote et al. (1969) found that in
their American samples, both males and females emphasised the paternal image of God
rather than the maternal image and that this strand was even stronger in males than in
females. The paternal image of God was also emphasised by both boys and girls within
the two Asian communities reported by Vergote and Aubert (1973) and by the hospital
patients and members of an adult Sunday school in the U.S.A. study reported by Justice
and Lambert (1986). Similarly Gibson (1994) demonstrated that both boys and girls are
much more likely to believe that God is like a father than to believe that God is like a
mother. A second group of studies by Strunk (1959), Godin and Hallez (1965), and
Deconchy (1968) indicated that the relation between God and father or between God
and the masculine image was preeminent in women, whereas in men, the relation
between God and mother or between God and the feminine image predominated. Both
of these sets of findings lend some support to the Freudian theory. A third conclusion,
from a study by Vergote, Bonami, Custers and Pattyn (1967) among a French-speaking
Belgian sample, found that both males and females emphasised the parental image of
God corresponding to their own gender. Finally, the early study by Nelson and Jones
(1957) and the more recent study among Canadian students by Tamayo and Dugas
(1977) draw attention to the strong relation between the concept of God and the
mother image for both male and female subjects. Both of these findings contradict the
Freudian theory. The inadequacy of the Freudian theory is also suggested by a group of
studies which indicate that women hold a more feminine image of God than the image
held by men (Nelsen, Cheek and Au,1985).

Personality Theories
A second type of psychological theory has its roots in the wider study of the psychology
of gender differences. For example, Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1975) develop a
psychological theory from the basis that women experience more guilt feelings than
men. Religion, they argue, provides a mechanism for dealing with guilt. According to
Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1975) the reason why the ratio of women rises on the
continuum from Catholicism to extreme Protestantism is because of the greater
emphasis on sin and salvation in the Protestant group. Mol (1985), however, maintains
that this argument is weak on the grounds that there are proportionally more Catholic
than Protestant women involved in religious practices.
Bourque and Back (1968) develop a psychological theory from the basis that women
experience more feelings of frustration than men. Religion, they argue, provides a
mechanism for dealing with frustration. According to Bourque and Back (1968), the
reason why women report a higher frequency of religious experience than men is as a
reaction to their higher level of experienced frustration. In a similar vein, studies by
Garai and Scheinfeld (1968) and Garai (1970) suggest that women are generally more
fearful, more submissive, more passive, more anxious and more dependent than men.
Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1975) argue that these psychological characteristics predis-
pose women to seeking the psychological support derived from religion. Francis
(1993a), however, maintains that arguments of this nature are weak on the grounds that
gender differences in areas like anxiety have not been clearly and universally established.
Bruce Reed’s (1978) analysis of the dynamics of religion sees religion as a process by
which dependency needs are met. Building on this theory, Walter (1990) argues that the
 Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion 87

way in which women are less likely than men to value independence and autonomy is
reflected in a greater dependence on religion. He argues that:

whereas a relationship with Christ may fulfil a woman’s desire for relationship, it
directly confronts a man’s desire for independence.

Feltey and Poloma (1991) trace gender differences in religiosity to more fundamental
differences in gender role ideology. They argue that gender role ideology is the prior
psychological variable and that generational shifts in gender role ideology may account
for changes in levels of religiosity. The case is supported by multivariate data analysis
which confirms the hypothesis that gender role ideology is more important than gender
in predicting individual differences in several dimensions of religiosity.
A series of studies by Kay (1981), Francis and Pearson (1985) and Francis (1992b)
draws attention to low psychoticism scores as the personality dimension fundamental to
individual differences in religiosity, drawing on the dimensional model of personality
proposed by Hans Eysenck (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1985). Further evidence for the
significant negative correlation between psychoticism and religiosity is provided by Nias
(1973), Powell and Stewart (1978), Francis and Pearson (1988), Francis, Lankshear and
Pearson (1989), Francis and Bennett (1992), Francis and Katz (1992), Francis and
Montgomery (1992), Francis (1993b), Francis and Wilcox (1994) and Francis, Lewis,
Brown, Phillipchalk and Lester (1995), although some other studies fail to support this
relationship. For example, Watson, Morris, Foster and Hood (1986) employed three
indices of religiosity in their study and found a significant correlation with psychoticism
and two of these measures, but not the third. Johnson et al. (1989) found a significant
correlation with psychoticism in their Hawaii sample, but not in their Missouri sample.
At the same time, there is considerable evidence to suggest that females record lower
scores on the psychoticism scales than men (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1976). This
argument would account for gender differences in religiosity in terms of fundamental
gender differences in levels of psychoticism.
Miller and Hoffmann (1995) trace gender differences in religiosity to more funda-
mental gender differences in risk preference. Building on psychological studies of
risk-taking behaviour (Yates, 1992), they conceive of religious acceptance as risk-averse
behaviour and the rejection of religious beliefs as risk-taking behaviour. A considerable
body of empirical research has demonstrated that females perceive greater risk in many
aspects of life and are thus less likely to have risk-taking attitudes and to be involved in
risk-taking behaviours (Hagan, Simpson and Gillis, 1988; Box, Hale and Andrews,
1988; Keane, Gillis and Hagan, 1989; Moore and Rosenthal, 1991; Bromley and
Curley, 1992). However, according to Eysenck’s dimensional model of personality, as
applied to religiosity by Francis and his associates, this observed relationship between
risk-taking and religion can be explained more economically in terms of the theory that
the higher order personality factor of psychoticism is the prior determinant of individual
differences in both risk-taking and religiosity.

Gender Orientation Theory

The most recent psychological theory advanced to account for gender differences in
religiosity builds on the notions of feminine and masculine orientations as personality
constructs as developed, for example, by Bem (1981) in the refinement of the Bem Sex
Role Inventory. According to this conceptualisation, masculinity and femininity are not
88 L. J. Francis

bipolar descriptors of a unidimensional construct, but two orthogonal personality

dimensions. Empirically the Bem Sex Role Inventory demonstrates considerable
variations in both femininity and masculinity among both men and women. Using this
theory, Thompson (1991) argued that individual differences in religiosity should be
affected more by gender orientation than by being male or female. According to this
account, being religious is a consonant experience for people with a feminine orientation,
while men as well as women can have a feminine orientation.
Thompson (1991) proceeded to argue that, if being religious is a gender type attribute
characterising women’s lives in general, then multivariate analyses which control for the
personality dimensions of masculinity and femininity should reveal that being female
continues to have a significant effect on predicting religiosity. However, if being
religious is a function of gender orientation, then multivariate analyses which control for
the personality dimensions of masculinity and femininity should result in no additional
variance explained by being female. Thompson’s empirical analysis, using data from 358
undergraduate students in New England who completed the Bem (1981) Sex Role
Inventory together with five measures of religiosity, provided clear support for the view
that being religious is a function of gender orientation.
Francis and Wilcox (1996) explored Thompson’s hypotheses, using data from 159
students in Wales who completed the Bem (1981) Sex Role Inventory together with
the Francis (1992c) Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. Like Thompson’s original
analysis, this study demonstrated that the significant relationship between religiosity and
being female disappeared after controlling for individual differences in masculinity and
femininity.
In a subsequent study, Francis (1997) administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory
together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity to two samples of
adolescents. The first sample comprised 340 males and 347 females between the ages of
13 and 15 years. The second sample comprised 59 males and 233 females between the
ages of 16 and 18 years. Multiple regression analysis indicated that among the older
group individual differences in gender orientation explained all the variance in attitude
toward Christianity between males and females. Among the younger age group gender
still explained additional variance in attitude toward Christianity after taking gender
orientation into account.
Smith (1990) administered the Bem (1981) Sex Role Inventory, together with a
measure of religiosity constructed from questions about strength of belief, church
attendance and importance of religious conviction, to a sample of 106 undergraduate
students in the U.S.A. Data from this study indicated that for women gender identity
did not influence religiosity, while among men religious involvement increases in line
with psychological femininity.
Two earlier studies, which employed less well developed indices of gender orienta-
tion, also provide some support for the view that religiosity is a function of gender
orientation. Terman and Miles (1936) found that interest in religion was strongly
associated with femininity for both men and women. Their scale of femininity,
however, needs to be treated with caution in this context, since the items really assess
cultural interest and actually included one or two questions of a specifically religious
nature (Wright, 1967). Suziedelis and Potvin (1981), in a study among 297 boys and 344
girls in grades seven through nine in Catholic schools, found that religiosity was related
to gender role orientation in boys, but not in girls. In this case, however, it was the
masculinity, not the femininity scales, which served as significant predictors of
religiousness. One of the two masculinity scales (activity) was positively related to both
 Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion 89

orthodoxy and practice. The other masculinity scale (potency) was negatively related
to practice. Insufficient details, however, are given about Suziedelis and Potvin’s
unpublished gender orientation scales to interpret the significance of their findings.
The view that there is a positive relationship between religiosity and psychological
femininity is also supported, in a different way, by Gaston and Brown (1991), who
invited a heterogeneous sample of 95 males and 105 females to rate a religious or non-
religious prototype target on the Australian Sex Role Inventory (Antill, Cunningham,
Russell and Thompson, 1981). They found that more positive feminine characteristics
were assigned to the religious targets and more masculine characteristics were assigned
to the non-religious targets.
Another strand of research supporting the view that gender orientation is fundamental
to religiosity is concerned with interpreting the personality profile of male clergy. The
feminine characteristics of male clergy have been noted by several studies in the U.S.A.
(Nauss, 1973). For example Templer (1974) noted that clergy and seminarians scored in
a feminine direction on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Manual
(Hathaway and McKinley, 1967). Ekhardt and Goldsmith (1984) noted that male
seminarians scored a feminine profile on the Personality Preference Form ( Jackson,
1974). Goldsmith and Ekhardt (1984) found male seminarians scored higher on the
femininity dimension of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1981) than college men.
In the U.K., Francis (1991, 1992a) found that male clergy and ordinands recorded a
characteristically feminine profile on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck
and Eysenck, 1975) and on the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
(Eysenck, Eysenck and Barrett, 1985). Other psychological studies, however, question
the myth of clerical femininity, both among Lutheran seminarians in the U.S.A.
(Simono, 1978) and among Catholic priests and seminarians in the U.S.A. (Murray,
1958).

Research Agenda
If recent attempts to apply gender orientation theory to account for individual
differences in religiosity are valid, this approach may help to explain the inadequacy of
earlier theories, grounded either in social and contextual factors or in other forms of
psychological theory, and the ambiguity of the empirical data shaped to test these
theories. While the very measurement of gender orientation is not without significant
criticism (Maznah and Choo, 1986; Schenk and Heinisch, 1986; Archer, 1989) the
usefulness of the theory to account for the different levels of religiosity among men and
women, seen as two social groups, should provide the springboard for a fruitful line of
future research.

Appendix: Statistical Evidence

The statistical evidence generally cited to support the case that women are more
religious than men includes the following range of markers.
To begin with, many studies demonstrate that a higher proportion of females attend
church than is the case among males throughout the age range, for example in Australia
(Bodycomb, 1978; Bouma and Dixon, 1987; De Vaus and McAllister, 1987; Dempsey,
1989; Kaldor, Bellamy, Correy and Powell, 1992), Canada (Gee, 1991), England
(Brierley, 1980, 1983, 1991; Francis, 1984a, 1985; British Council of Churches, 1986;
Davies, Watkins and Winter, 1991; Field, 1993), New Zealand (Webster and Perry,
1989, 1992), Scotland (Brierley and Macdonald, 1985), the U.K. as a whole (Brierley
and Hiscock, 1993), the U.S.A. (Alston, 1971; De Vaus, 1984; Roberts and Davidson,
90 L. J. Francis

1984; Gallup, 1987; Levin and Markides, 1988; Ploch and Hastings, 1994) and Wales
(Brierley and Evans, 1983). Other studies show that females are more likely to be
involved in church run groups, for example in the U.K. (Francis and Lankshear, 1991)
and in the U.S.A. (Koenig, Kvale and Ferrel, 1988; Thompson, 1991, or to claim for
themselves denominational membership, for example in Australia (Mol, 1985), New
Zealand (Webster and Perry, 1989), the U.K. (Francis, 1982a; Greeley, 1992) and the
U.S.A. (Taylor, 1986; Chatters and Taylor, 1989). Similarly, studies concerned with
prayer demonstrate that females are more likely to pray, for example in Australia
(Bouma and Dixon, 1987), the U.K. (Greeley, 1992) and the U.S.A. (Markides, 1983;
Poloma and Gallup, 1991; Thompson, 1991). Studies concerned with bible reading
show that females are more likely to read the scriptures, for example in England
(Harrison, 1983) and the U.S.A. (Gallup, 1987). Studies concerned with confirmation
reveal that females are more likely to seek adult membership of a church, for example
in England (Lankshear, 1992; Central Board of Finance, 1994).
Women are more likely to report religious and mystical experiences, as revealed by
studies in Australia (De Vaus and McAllister, 1987), the U.K. (Hay and Morisy, 1978)
and the U.S.A. ( Jacobs, 1992; Reinert and Stifler, 1993). Women are more likely to
watch religious programmes on television, as revealed by studies in the U.K. (ABC
Television, 1964; Svenning, Haldane, Spiers and Gunter, 1988) and the U.S.A. (Blazer
and Palmore, 1976; Gallup, 1987).
A number of studies demonstrate that females are more likely than males to express
belief in God, for example in New Zealand (Gold and Webster, 1990), the U.K.
(Francis, 1982a, 1982b; Francis and Kay, 1995) and the U.S.A. (Thompson, 1991).
Other studies show that females are more likely to believe in life after death, for example
in the U.K. (Greeley, 1992) and the U.S.A. (Ferraro and Albrecht-Jensen, 1991).
Women are more likely to hold traditional religious beliefs, for example according to
studies conducted in Australia (De Vaus and McAllister, 1987) and in Western Europe
(Harding, Phillips and Fogarty, 1986). According to a study conducted in Japan, women
are more likely to express belief in Buddhas and Spirits (Miller, 1992). Women are more
likely to assert the importance of God in their lives, for example according to Bouma
and Dixon (1987) in Australia. Women are more likely to report feeling close to God,
for example according to Greeley (1992) in the U.K. and according to Ferraro and
Albrecht-Jensen (1991) in the U.S.A. Women are more inclined to report deriving great
comfort from religion, for example according to Abrams (1985) in the U.K. Women are
more inclined to express the personal-experiential dimension of religion, for example
according to Nelsen and Potvin (1981) in the U.S.A.
There is also considerable evidence to indicate that females hold a more positive
attitude towards religion during childhood and adolescence. This point is clearly
demonstrated by studies conducted in Columbia (Patino, 1965), England (Francis, 1987,
1989), Ireland (Francis and Greer, 1990; Greer and Francis, 1991), Scotland (Gibson,
1989; Gibson and Francis, 1989) and the U.S.A. (Forliti and Benson, 1986). Another set
of studies indicates that girls hold a more positive attitude towards religious education
throughout the age range (Dale and Jones, 1964; Cox, 1967; Wright and Cox, 1971;
Greer, 1972, 1980, 1989; Lewis, 1974; Francis and Lewis, 1996). Moreover,
studies concerned specifically with adolescent churchgoers, in Anglican, Catholic and
Protestant churches, demonstrate that female churchgoers express greater satisfaction
with their local church and lower levels of alienation than is the case among male
churchgoers, for example in the U.K. (Francis, 1984a) and in the U.S.A. (Dudley and
Laurent, 1988).
 Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion 91

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The Revd Professor LESLIE J. FRANCIS holds qualifications in theology, education

and psychology from the Universities of Cambridge, London, Nottingham and Oxford.
He is an ordained priest in the Anglican church. Currently he is D. J. James Professor
of Pastoral Theology at Trinity College, Carmarthen and University of Wales,
Lampeter, specializing in the psychology of religion and empirical research methods.
Recent publications include Christian Perspectives for Education (1990), Churches in
Fellowship (1991), Christian Perspectives on Faith Development (1992), Christian Perspectives
on Church Schools (1993), Critical Perspectives on Education (1994), Teenage Religion and
Values (1995), and numerous articles reporting empirical research in religion.

Trinity College, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, SA31 3EP, Wales