Responses to Changing Lifestyles

Women's roles in work and family spheres have undergone dramatic changes in the latter part of this century, and there is reason to believe, from previous research, that these changes may have affected women's religious behaviors. First, women who are not in “typical” (two-parent-plus-child) families may be alienated from participation in religious communities dominated by such traditional family groups. Second, several studies have found that high levels of workforce participation limit women's involvement in voluntary activity and expose them to secularizing influences. ² Yet, overall, women's participation in religion is strong, and, according to Wuthnow, a religiosity gap between the sexes remains consistent over time. He found that forty-six percent of women, compared with thirty-five percent of men, attend religious services regularly; and sixty-six percent (versus forty percent of men) were Bible-readers. These differences, he notes, persisted over a period that saw increasing levels of education and greater rates of participation in the labor force for women. ³