Where men are less religious, there is greater gender equality

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-02-02 11:01

International

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Countries with more non-religious men are more likely to have better gender equality, according to international research. The team looked at results from global values surveys and compared them to the Global Gender Gap Index. While women are generally more religious than men across most countries, the researchers say countries with higher rates of religious men were less likely to score well on gender equality, regardless of the type of religion. The amount of religious women in a country, the researchers say, does not appear to significantly influence gender equality.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Gender equality and religion – Men are less religious in countries with greater gender equality. Data from 125 countries found gender equality was consistently and negatively associated with religiousness (religious attendance, belief in the importance of god and frequency of prayer) for men, more than for women. Engagement in religious behaviours and beliefs might stem partly from the reproductive benefits people acquire from them, the authors said

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Men Are Less Religious in More Gender-Equal Countries

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Women are usually more religious than men, but is this always the case? One study found that country-level gender equality is consistently and negatively associated with religiousness for men, but not for women. This results in larger sex differences in countries with greater gender equality.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Arizona State University, USA

Funder: The authors received no funding for this study.

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