ABSTRACT
The sociology of religion is not blind to gender, yet its central paradigms remain relatively untouched by an awareness of its significance. This is most obviously true of theories of secularization, which have long constituted the core curriculum of the subject. This chapter proposes a related but significantly different account of how existing explanations of secularization can be enhanced by taking account of changing gender relations. Women are more religious than men on every index of commitment, outnumbering them by a ratio of around 3:2 in most churches in both Europe and America. Many existing theories of secularization single out one or more aspects of modernization as responsible for religious decline, including rationalization, bureaucratization, urbanization, socialization and individualization. In the process the world becomes disenchanted, religion loses its traditional functions, an ethic of duty and self-sacrifice loses its relevance, and our labourer ceases to be a religious believer and belonger.
