Previous research suggests that women are more religious than men. However, some studies have found that it isn’t so much sex as gender role that predicts religiosity. The present research is a replication of a more than 20-year-old analysis. More than 60 College of Idaho students were asked about religious belief and gender orientation to see whether there has been a change in this relationship in the last two decades. Gender roles were measured using the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and religion was assessed with measures of depth of self-assessed religious belief, religious outlook and behavior, and degree of orthodoxy. Preliminary correlational analyses suggest that a feminine gender role in no longer as predictive of religiosity, and in fact, the current sample of college students looks more like the (less religiously inclined) males in the original study.

Gendered Religion