Critically examine the relationship between different social groups and their religious beliefs and practice

There are important differences between social groups and their religious participation and in the types of belief they hold. There are clear gender differences in religious beliefs and participation. Sociologists have put forward several explanations for gender differences in religious belief and practice however these tend to focus on the reasons for women’s relatively high levels of participation rather than men’s lower levels. While the priesthoods of most religions are male, more women than men participate in religious activities and believe in God. For example, in 2005, 1.8 million women in England were churchgoers, as against only 1.36 million men.

Miller and Hoffman (1995) identify two main theories explaining women’s greater religiosity. Firstly there is differential socialisation where women are taught to be more submissive and passive than men and these characteristics are associated with being more religious. Traditional religions tend to expect their followers to be passive and obedient. The second theory is structural location where women take part in religion because of their social roles. Men are more likely to take on the instrumental role whereas the women take on the expressive role. This gives women more time for church-related jobs. However as sociologists go on to quote this research and take these factors into account they have criticised it for no fully explaining why women are more religious than men.

Greeley (1992) argues that taking care of other family members increases women’s religiosity because it involves responsibility for their ‘ultimate’ welfare as well as their everyday needs. Similarly, Davie (1994) argues that women’s closer proximity to birth and death brings them closer to ‘ultimate’ questions about the meaning