This dissertation explores the interrelationships between gender, religion, and politics in the United States and around the world. It seeks to solve two key sociological puzzles: (1) Even though religion is often perceived as a patriarchal institution, women are typically more religious than men. (2) Counter to group position theories of politics, women and other disadvantaged groups are not consistently more liberal on some issues (e.g., abortion). Using existing and original survey data, I conduct four related studies on gender gaps in religion and the implications of gender gaps in religion for gender gaps in politics. Theoretically, I argue that religions are gender-typed institutions with gendered social psychological opportunities and constraints. This framework helps explain why women are often more religious than men despite religions typically being run by men, and why gender differences in religiosity vary across religious groups. It also sheds light on why gender differences in politics, especially on specific social issues like abortion, seem to contradict the positionality principle of disadvantage promoting liberal politics. Empirically, I use original data from two large national experimental surveys to demonstrate that people perceive religions as gender-typed and project gender-typed traits onto religious institutions and the people affiliated with those institutions. Using my original data and national and cross-national secondary data, I also show that (1) gender differences in religiousness and in political values vary across religious groups and religiocultural contexts, (2) that the gender-typing of religions and gendered social psychological benefits from religion appear to be implicated in gender differences in religiousness, and (3) that this gender-typing suppresses gender-differences in politics among some religious groups (including Christians) while amplifying gender differences in politics among other religious groups (including Muslims). I conclude by discussing implications for social scientific research on the persistence of gender differences and gender inequality.
اصطلاحهای موضوعی کنترل نشده
اصطلاح موضوعی
Gender studies
اصطلاح موضوعی
Religion
اصطلاح موضوعی
Sociology
نام شخص به منزله سر شناسه - (مسئولیت معنوی درجه اول )