Why are women more religious than men when traditional teachings so often limit their social and economic horizons?

Why are women more religious than men when traditional teachings so often limit their social and economic horizons?

In the week that the Church of England installed the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in its 500-year history, Warwick economist Professor Sascha Becker published new work exploring why it is that women, across almost all faiths and nations, are more religious than men even though most world faiths emphasise traditional, unequal gender roles for women and girls.

In Gender and Religion: a survey, published in the Journal of Demographic Economics, Professor Becker and co-authors Jeanet Sinding Bentzen (University of Copenhagen) and Chun Chee Kok (Université Catholique de Louvain) first investigate what economics, psychology and sociology can tell us about gender differences in personal faith and religious practice.

In the second part of their paper, they look at how religious doctrine and/or religiosity (“religion” for short) affects women’s economic and social outcomes. The researchers reviewed a large number of studies focusing on those which use empirical techniques – such as natural experiments, randomized interventions, policy changes or instrumental variables – to isolate the effects of religion.

Survey evidence and demographic studies consistently show that women are more likely than men to identify as having a religious affiliation, to engage in daily prayer, and to consider religion an important part of their lives.

Explanations put forward by researchers past and present include:-

• Economic roles and division of labour – studies in the 1970s proposed that religious participation was seen as part of the domestic sphere belonging to women. More recent time-use studies have found that women who work outside the home tend to be less religious than those who don’t.
• Aversion to risk – 17^th century philosopher Blaise Pascal proposed that a logical person would choose to believe in God, arguing “if you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing.” On average, research has found women to be more risk-averse than men. Perhaps they accept Pascal’s Wager as a form of insurance? Membership of a faith community can also be a form of insurance, offering emotional support and practical help.
• Compensation for deprivation – faith communities can offer women an alternative sphere of value, social connection and purpose in societies where they cannot achieve this through employment. In some contexts studied, the presence of women in faith leadership roles was found to have positive effects on female participation in public life and education rates for women and girls, for example in 1930s Korea.

The gap in religiosity is more marked among older generations than younger ones. Recent research in Europe, North America and Australia has found that the gap is closing, with young men turning to religion and young women leaving. Some studies cited in the paper are linking this to an increase in congregations preaching a patriarchal interpretation of Christian manhood and extreme Christian nationalism.

Professor Becker said: “An important question on which evidence is only beginning to emerge is whether the gender gap will close as societies modernise and secularise – or will deeper factors continue to draw women to faith?

“We found extensive evidence revealing how religion influences a wide range of outcomes for women and girls, from how much and what type of education girls receive, to whether girl children are even born in the first place.

“However, this influence was not only in one direction. We found that in some contexts, religious movements promoted female empowerment - such as the drive by early Protestants to ensure that all members of the congregation were sufficiently literate to read the Bible. Others, such as the modern-day Taliban, deny women and girls any education at all.

“Women’s participation in formal employment, their reproductive rights, and their legal rights and responsibilities are still shaped openly by religious teachings and indirectly through the influence of faith on legislators.

“Against this background it is clearly a puzzle that women are, on average, more religious than men despite most religions promoting and entrenching patriarchal norms which impose significant costs and burdens upon them.

“While the research we reviewed offers partial explanations, no single theory or study explains this paradox.”

ENDS

• Becker SO, Bentzen JS, Kok CC. Gender and religion: a survey. Journal of Demographic Economics Published online 2026:1-42. doi:10.1017/dem.2025.10014