The Religiosity of Women in the Modern West

Abstract

In western societies influenced by Christianity, women are more religious than men on virtually every measure. If religion is rooted (as Marx suggested) in economic vulnerability, can the religiosity of women be explained by economic or social circumstances? Or what about the vulnerability of the physical body - can women's religiosity be explained by their greater contact with birth and death? If modernity entails the progressive eradication of all kinds of vulnerability, what might this mean for the future of religion in general and of women's religiosity in particular? And what further twists to the story might postmodernity add? The article uses these questions as a frame for reviewing the literature on women's religiosity in the modern West.