Is Faith Feminine?

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This book explains the gendered paradox of religion: men dominate the institutions, but women fill the pews. To some, the pattern looks universal. It isn’t. Drawing on cross-national data and original surveys of thousands of Americans—with oversamples of Muslims, Jews, and the nonreligious—Is Faith Feminine? shows that gender gaps vary dramatically across traditions and contexts. Christian women are more religious than Christian men. Among Muslims, Jews, and some other groups, the gap shrinks, disappears, or reverses entirely. To explain this variation, the book develops Gendered Incentives and Expectations (GIE) theory. GIE distinguishes individual faith—typically coded feminine, offering comfort, validation, and meaning—from organized religion—typically coded masculine, hierarchical, and dominated by men. These incentives and expectations shape who religion appeals to, who participates, and how. The implication runs counter to received wisdom: the books shows that absent gendered incentives, women would often be less religious than men—just what we might expect given how institutional religion has so often excluded and subordinated them. The book traces religion’s gendered appeal through its political consequences and explains why many Americans today are disengaging from religious institutions while maintaining personal faith and spirituality. Is Faith Feminine? offers a new account of religion, gender, and social change in the contemporary United States and beyond.</jats:p>