Beliefs & Practices

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.

Standard lists of history’s most influential religious leaders – among them Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) – tend to be predominantly, if not exclusively, male. Many religious groups, including Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews, allow only men to be clergy, while others, including some denominations in the evangelical Protestant tradition, have lifted that restriction only in recent decades. Yet it often appears that the ranks of the faithful are dominated by women.

Nearly all Jews in the United States and Israel say they are proud to be Jewish, and strong majorities in both countries say they feel a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people. But the two Jewish communities do not always agree about what it means to be Jewish.

The two largest organized Jewish denominations in America – Reform and Conservative Judaism – together have about five times as many U.S. members as the historically much older, more strictly observant Orthodox community. But the Reform and Conservative movements have a far smaller footprint in Israel.

There are deep divisions in Israeli society over political values and religion's role in public life -- not only between Jews and the Arab minority, but also among the religious subgroups that make up Israeli Jewry.

Southern states are among the most highly religious states in the U.S., while those in New England are among the least devout.