Women are More Religious Than Men; is this True?

Abstract

The terms religion and religiosity are intertwined with those that religion is more socially-cultural aspect and religiosity is more individual [1]. An important question is how to measure religiosity because general religiosity cannot be operationalised and assessed [2], and more specific behavioural, emotional and cognitive aspects of religion and spirituality need to be identified. Most psychological research focuses on two measures of religiositybelief and behavior. Some researchers have developed measures of religiosity and spirituality to suit their immediate research needs, and virtually all measures of religiosity have been developed in Christian contexts, and are unsuitable for use in other religious traditions. There are many questions that deal with religiosity and gender differences in religiosity is one of them. Interpretations of differences in religiosity between men and women can be reduced to several basic theories: socialization theory, theory of position in the social structure, gender schemas theory and essentialist theory. Socialization theory and theory of position in the social structure more concerned with the differences that are observed in the religious practice of women and men (reading Bible, pray), while gender schemas theory generally interpret differences in the concept of God and the various mystical endowment between men and women [3]. Many researchers who took investigation in psychology of religiosity found that women are more religious than men and this has been the general conclusion in the social scientific and psychological literature [4]. According to Smith et al. [5], studies have shown that women more than men come to church, more follow religious instructions, more talk with clergy, more engage in daily prayer, more pray for their own benefit, more undertake religious education of the children and more use church for the acquisition of social support. In terms of intrinsic / extrinsic religious orientation, the results are not unambiguous. Either, there is no gender differences on any of the two subscales, or women achieve higher score than man on intrinsic scale [6] of religiosity. Batson et al. [7] in research who were predominantly on Christian samples, reports higher levels of attendance and Bible study among women than among men. Some authors suggested that gender differences in religiosity, such as higher levels of religious involment, prayer and religiosity generally among women comapred to men may be a reflection of greter opportunity among women for religious activity or differences in personality and socialisation [8]. Aim of study was to examine whether women are more religious than men, further differences in religiosity between man and women who live in small and big places were also examined.