Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life

Jewish Identity and the Secular Achievements of American Jewish Men and Women

“…While the Orthodox score higher on all of the factors, they are most distinguished from the other groups on the private religious and private ethnic identity measures; they score almost the same as the Conservative and only slightly higher than the Reform on the public religious and public ethnic measures. All denominational affiliates score higher than the unaffiliated (Hartman and Hartman 2009a:134–38).…”

“…As Taylor (2007) suggests, one of the characteristics of “A Secular Age” is that there are “multiple options to express the religious impulse” (Christiansen 2007:2) and, indeed, some studies have tackled the multidimensionality of religiosity (e.g., Pepper, Jackson, and Uzell 2010; Rinaman et al 2009). Few studies, however, have actually studied how multiple or various expressions of religious identity are related to secular behavior (Evans and Kelley 2008; Hartman and Hartman 1996, 2009a; Read 2004). Lehrer (2009:225) has called for a “richer array of dimensions of religion” to be used in studies of the influence of religion.…”

“…Religiosity is also related to gender roles (Read 2004) and specifically to women's labor force participation at particular stages of life (Evans and Kelley 2008; Gallagher 2003; Hartman and Hartman 1996, 2009a; Lehrer 1995; Read 2004; Sherkat 2000). For women, the effect of religiosity appears to be related to family roles and through them indirectly to labor force participation, though religion may also have a direct effect on labor force participation (Evans and Kelley 2008; Hartman and Hartman 2009a; Read 2004).…”

“…Recognizing the importance of gender, we examine the effects of Jewish identity on secular achievement for men and women separately. The processes of labor force participation and occupational achievement differ significantly by gender and women tend to be more religiously and ethnically identified (Hartman and Hartman 2009a; see also Collett and Lizardo 2009; Hertel 1995; Mueller and Johnson 1975; Rayburn 2004; Stark 2002; Walter and Davie 1998; Weber [1922] 1963; Woolever et al 2006). The stronger religious identity of women compared to men might account for the greater impact of religiosity on women's behavior, including primarily secular behavior such as labor force participation and occupational achievements.…”

Where Men Appear More Religious Than Women: Turning a Gender Lens on Religion in Israel

“…A few studies have examined gender differences among Jews in the United States and indicated that gender gaps for Jews may be different from those for Christians on commonly used measures (Hartman 2016;Hartman and Hartman 2009;Roth and Kroll 2007;Schnabel 2015a). Despite some research on gender gaps among Jews in the U.S., and despite Israel being unique from a global perspective as the world's only Jewish-majority country, the gender differences in religiosity phenomenon remains largely unexamined in Israel (but see DellaPergola 2001).…”