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Abstract
It has been acknowledged that white western men are more likely to leave their former religion behind (Altemeyer and Hunsberger, 1997, Zuckerman, 2012), or declare themselves of no religion (Brown and Lynch, 2012, Baker and Smith, 2009), than women (Beit-Hallahmi, 2007). But it has not been unknown for women, even in the past, both of the older and younger generations to do the same (Budd 1977; Schwarz 2010). This article, based on two small scale studies in the United Kingdom, considers a group of older and a group of younger women ‘apostates’, to determine what leads them to do this and examines whether developing a feminist orientation plays a role. Religious women in second wave feminism were often ignored, having been considered to have chosen patriarchy over feminism while there is some evidence that women with feminist attitudes are less likely to be religious (Redfern and Aune, 2013, 154, Furseth, 2010, 210).Data were subjected to inductive thematic analysis to determine overarching themes, while the three-fold typology of apostasy developed by Zuckerman (2012) allowed the authors to examine similarities and differences between older and younger women who choose to leave religion behind. They conclude reasons for apostasy are various, certainly not solely attributable to developing a feminist orientation.
Highlights
It has been acknowledged that white Western politically liberal men are more likely to leave their former religion behind (Altemeyer and Hunsberger, 1997, Zuckerman, 2012), or declare themselves of no religion (Brewster, 2013), than women
Feltey and Paloma (1991), have argued that the negative influence of gender ideology on religiosity indicates that feminism or a belief in gender equality decreases the belief in an orthodox interpretation of the Bible and the personal importance of religion
He included a range of people of ‘different ages and stages in life’ (12) and a variety of faiths, largely Christianity of various stripes, and offers an analysis based on when, how deeply the rejection of religion goes and thirdly, how transformative such a withdrawal is. We prefer this definition because Zuckerman allows for the category of those who were not religious in the first place, for whom relinquishing religion was not ‘all that big a deal’ and entailing ‘few personal consequences’ (7), and this is a useful category for some of our participants, given that the research took place in the relatively secularized UK, and included young people who are generally acknowledged to be less religious than previous generations (Brown and Lynch, 2012, Catto and Eccles, 2013). Both the studies on which we report were interviewbased, drawing on inductive thematic analysis (AttrideStirling, 2001, Braun and Clarke, 2006, Guest et al, 2012, Riessman, 2012), a method which involves systematically searching for themes that emerge from respondents’ answers to a set of interview questions
Summary
It has been acknowledged that white Western politically liberal men are more likely to leave their former religion behind (Altemeyer and Hunsberger, 1997, Zuckerman, 2012), or declare themselves of no religion (Brewster, 2013), than women. He included a range of people of ‘different ages and stages in life’ (12) and a variety of faiths, largely Christianity of various stripes, and offers an analysis based on when, how deeply the rejection of religion goes and thirdly, how transformative such a withdrawal is We prefer this definition because Zuckerman allows for the category of those who were not religious in the first place, for whom relinquishing religion was not ‘all that big a deal’ and entailing ‘few personal consequences’ (7), and this is a useful category for some of our participants, given that the research took place in the relatively secularized UK, and included young people who are generally acknowledged to be less religious than previous generations (Brown and Lynch, 2012, Catto and Eccles, 2013)
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