Gender & Religion

Jews are more highly educated than any other major religious group around the world, while Muslims and Hindus tend to have the fewest years of formal schooling. But all religious groups are making gains, particularly among women.

Americans are divided about the contentious debate over the rights of transgender people to use public restrooms of their current gender identity.

The U.S. public expresses a clear consensus on the contentious question of whether employers who have religious objections to contraception should be required to provide it in health insurance plans for their employees.

Women are more likely than men to say they attend worship services regularly. But this gap in church attendance has been narrowing in recent decades, as the share of women attending weekly has declined.

Many countries have laws that ban or limit women from wearing religious attire in public places. By comparison, far fewer countries require women to wear particular types of attire for religious reasons.

While Christian women are on the whole more religious than Christian men, Muslim women and Muslim men have similar levels of religious commitment. And when it comes to attendance at worship services, Muslim men are more active than Muslim women.

A discussion with David Voas of the Department of Social Science at University College London on the gender gap in religion around the world.

Gender gap in weekly worship service attendance differs between Muslim-majority and Christian-majority countries.

Generally, women are more likely than men to be affiliated with a religious organization; women also pray more, and are more inclined to say religion is “very important” in their lives.