JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Mon, 20 Jun 2016 15:43:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ARIELA KEYSARt BARRY A. KOSMINt This study demonstrates that religion is significantly associated with the acquisition of postsecondary education by white women in the contemporary United States. Religion has both direct and indirect effects on educational attainment. Religious traditions differ in the degree to which they emphasize the importance of the family, marriage, and child bearing. This, in turn, influences how much higher education the women of the group are likely to obtain. Thus, religion has an indirect effect on the educational levels of women through their demographic behavior. In addition, we show that there is a relationship between religion and the education of white women that is maintained beyond other sociodemographic factors. A refined model involving 12 religious identifications on a conservative-liberal continuum, subjected to multivariate analyses, illustrates that educational differences tend to be wider among older women. Surprisingly, Conservative Protestant and No Religion adherents do not form the polarities, but have similar middle-order levels of educational attainment.So the variation among Americans should range quite widely according to particular religious outlooks. Therefore, we explain and illustrate this phenomenon by using a refined model involving 12 religious identifications on a continuum rather than a crude binary conservative-liberal classification.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Religion and Gender RolesThe role of religious institutions in maintaining traditional gender role perspectivesand thereby the socioeconomic dependence of women -has been documented in the literature (Daly 1985;DiSalvo 1984;Brinkerhoff and MacKie 1984;D'Antonio and Aldous 1983).Certain religions endorse, and thus perpetuate, the traditional family division of labor that distinguishes male and female roles. The domestic role is assigned to women, and the provider role is prescribed for men. A religion with this patriarchal outlook contributes to the continued economic dependence of women (Wilson 1982). As the traditional German expression maintains, the domain of women is "Kinder, Kuche, und Kirche" -children, the kitchen, and church.This content downloaded from 137.
