ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the intersection of marital status, gender and church affiliation amongst single women. It addresses the fact that, although women account for the majority of church-goers being unmarried negatively affects women's religiosity. Single women are more likely to attend church because of their gender, but less likely because of their marital status. Contemporary Christian single women's religiosity is an area in which there is almost no existing literature, which makes focusing on them rather than their married counterparts worthwhile. The chapter argues that single women's lower church commitment is connected to, and probably issues from, evangelicalism's construction of women's singleness as a non-normative status. It then outlines unmarried people's lower rates of religiosity are arguably related to the way singleness is dealt with by the churches. The construction of singleness as non-normative has historical origin and contemporary resonance in nonreligious environments.
