Work, Family, and Religious Involvement for Men and Women

Abstract

Do family formation and social establishment affect religious involvement in the same way for men and women, given increasing individualism and rapid changes in work and family roles? Using a random sample of adults from upstate New York (N = 1,006), our research builds on previous work in this area by using multiple measures of religious involvement, using multiple measures of individualism and beliefs about work and family roles, placing men and women in their work context, and looking at the relationships separately by gender. Men's religious involvement is associated with marriage, children, and full-time employment, signaling social establishment and maturity. Women's involvement is higher when there are school-aged children in the home, but it is also more intertwined with the salience of religion and with an assessment that religious institutions are a good fit with their values and lifestyles, including egalitarian views of gender. For men and women, views of religious authority and the role of religious institutions in the socialization of children are associated differently with religious involvement at different life stages. We call for further research to understand the gendered nature of religious involvement and the role of beliefs about work, family, and religion in explaining why individuals choose to be involved in religious institutions.Penny Edgell Becker can be found at

The gender ratio in the pews: consequences for congregational vitality

“…Daniels, 1988, pp. 4-6;Becker & Hofmeister, 2001). Even though females are far less likely to be clergy, ordained or not, than males (Zikmund et al, 1998, pp.…”

The Influence of Religious Personal Identity on the Relationships Among Religious Dissimilarity, Value Dissimilarity, and Job Satisfaction

“…From one perspective, the study of religious personal identity has largely been limited to studies outside the work context, such as examinations of religious involvement (Becker & Hofmeister, 2001) or death attitudes (Ladd, 2007), to name a few (for an exception, see Moore, 2008). This study contributes to the literature by also demonstrating that one's religious personal identity contributes to her or his perceptions of the self relative to others.…”

“…Note that in both cases, people who hold a particular set of religious beliefs; it is the strength of those beliefs and how central they are to one's perception of the self that differ. Such variability highlights the importance one's religious personal identity, or the level of importance placed on one's religion (for related work, see Becker & Hofmeister, 2001;Ladd, 2007;Markus, 1977). As Brewer (1991) notes, one's personal identity is an identity an individual holds that is perceived as critical to his or her self-concept.…”

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

“…Because Jewish women are at the forefront of such changes in labor force participation and occupational achievement, it would be expected that any such changes would certainly show up among Jews. However, Becker and Hofmeister (2001), in their research using a national sample of around 1,000, found that not only is women's religious involvement lower when they are employed full time, but so is their spouse's, suggesting that something else is going on. Becker and Hofmeister discuss the possibility that women's employment is accompanied by a greater individualism and a decreased willingness to assume the traditionally gendered roles that are historically associated with religious institutions, echoing some of the suggestions made by Walter and Davie (1998).…”