Theory on the Gender Gap in Church Attendance

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ndmoharo

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When I was little, I recall a priest mentioning that women are more spiritual than men. That thought has come to my mind a few times, but after growing up and looking around, I wondered if it was true. Especially when you look at ancient historical records.

One idea that popped into my head is that since women at home may have more leisure time, then that opens the door to being more religious as the things you see most often become the most important. However, I stumbled across an article via twitter that I think is very plausible.

Women aren’t more religious than men, but rather, Christianity and Western civilization has embraced too much on the feminine side at the expense of the masculine. At the beginning it was not so, but the modern era has greatly made this imbalance and it reflects on the church attendance.

You can read more here and I encourage you to do so. I think it also helps explain why women want to become clergy more these days when every female saint we hear about was not so.


I remember growing up and being far more inspired when my camp leaders would preach Christianity in terms of warfare and when the church would sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” or “King of Glory” was more exciting than other more romantic songs. I wonder if the fact that hymns nowadays tend to be suited for tenors rather than bass also reflects/perpetuates this cycle.
 
Well, from my observations I think that Western Christianity has become more “feminine”. However I think that Eastern Christianity is still pretty “masculine”. I grew up Latin but am now part of the UGCC and I can tell a difference. It’s hard to explain and should be witnessed 🙂
 
I was wondering if that was the case or not. I had that impression based off the Ukrainian Rite mass I went to. The feel is more ancient with chants being in the bass rather than tenor, but it was also pretty cool.
 
Angel_Gabriel said:
Well, from my observations I think that Western Christianity has become more “feminine”. However I think that Eastern Christianity is still pretty “masculine”.
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Would be interested in your concept of “feminine” and “masculine”…myself, I like St. Paul’s take on how in our faith, like there is no Greek or Jew, there is no male or female.
 
It has nothing to do with the Church. It’s a western cultural phenomenon across the board. It’s effected the Church just as much as it has effected any other aspect of western culture. IMO.
 
QContinuum said:
No, they aren’t. At least, not for much longer. Attendance rates are nearly equal now between men and women.
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The gap is narrowing, but its still not “nearly equal” 28% of women and 22% of men attend according to Pew.

That’s still a significant gap, and one the people would notice in the pews…

Are there polls specific to Catholics for this?
 
I have seen one out there that shows the defection rate for Catholic millennials is about the same for both boys and girls.
 
I once heard an Orthodox Jewish woman explain that men are required to do more in Judaism because women naturally have a closer connection with God and men need to build theirs. I don’t know that is a widely accepted view in Judaism, but does show that the idea of women being more religious is not unique to Christianity.
 
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ndmoharo said:
I was wondering if that was the case or not. I had that impression based off the Ukrainian Rite mass I went to. The feel is more ancient with chants being in the bass rather than tenor, but it was also pretty cool.
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Chants are generally in whatever range the cantor sings.
 
Augustinian said:
The gap is narrowing, but its still not “nearly equal” 28% of women and 22% of men attend according to Pew.
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Six points seems significant until one realizes in 1989, women’s attendance regularly doubled men’s. Since then, the trend downward has continued without variation.

My point still stands: women’s attendance is mirroring men’s (in that it has dropped off dramatically). In a few more years, women’s may actually drop below men’s.

For the Catholic perspective, here are two articles:

http://blogs.thearda.com/trend/feat...sappears-will-pope-francis-make-a-difference/

https://www.americamagazine.org/fai...g-america-survey-asks-women-about-their-lives
 
Off the top of my head: having only men for the servers/lectors; no hand-holding during the Lord’s Prayer; the styles of chanting; ad orientem. Some of these can be found in the TLM as well. It’s less happy-clappy and overly emotional in general.
 
My own little theory is that women are connected by our reproductive cycles and by childbearing to something bigger than ourselves, so it’s not too great a leap to attach to a spiritual/religious path that is bigger than ourselves.
 
I think the gap has a way of reinforcing itself. If a boy goes to church and sees mostly girls being confirmed and mostly women serving he may well internalise that religion isn’t for men and he is expected to grow out of it.
 
Its a common place observation.
One fairly obvious answer is that women are more vulnerable and powerless in most societies.
They are the one’s who often get left holding the baby by nature.
They are the ones who better know their need for God by and large.
 
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Men concerned about this issue need to step up to the plate and volunteer in the parishes. I taught Religious Education at my parish this past year, and out of 60 catechists there were maybe 5 other men besides me teaching. The young boys enrolled in the program probably look around and mostly see teaching RE as a woman’s endeavor. Same with any boys in the pews at Church. Most of the time, aside from the priest, the majority of the people up there are female, from the altar servers to the EMHCs, readers, singers, etc. So that’s not really going to inspire boys to volunteer to be altar servers or men to read at Mass, let alone discern a vocation to the priesthood.

It’s almost a type of unwritten, accepted compromise along the lines of, “well, the men have Holy Orders, so the women should do everything else.”
 
ConfusedLucy said:
I think the gap has a way of reinforcing itself. If a boy goes to church and sees mostly girls being confirmed and mostly women serving he may well internalise that religion isn’t for men and he is expected to grow out of it.
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I have a Greek Orthodox friend who says that the women go to Church and the men hang around outside the doors and smoke while the women are praying. There is cerrtainly no shortage of men at the altar in an Orthodox Church.
 
I think boys need to see in the Church something much bigger than themselves. Boys are Huns by nature and will grow up to be even worse Huns if allowed to do so. One remembers reading about the Roman Forum; how it was purposely designed to be overpoweringly awe-inspiring. It was to impress boys and men in particular that the Roman state and Roman law were greater than all Huns put together.

Church architecture in our time is not designed to do that except in a very few instances. Most Church architecture now is an “intimate worship space” designed for women. No soaring spaces and huge structures and heroic statues to impress boys and men and command their allegiance.

As to Church music, I’m inclined to agree with a previous poster who said the register is usually too high for most men. It is. I was amused by that because my voice is “Basso Profundo”, as deep as it gets, and I can sing an octave or two below where everybody else is. But I got drafted by the choir director when she realized I was the one doing it. Her exact purpose in doing it was to “round out” the sound, but also to encourage men in the congregation to sing. If they could hear my notes, she felt, they would sing.

I think it worked.
 
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