A recent trend seems to be going against the stereotypical view that men are far less interested in religion than women.
“For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious,” New York Times religion writer Ruth Graham reported recently.
Graham focused on evangelical churches in Texas, where young men clearly outnumbered young women.
While at first glance the news seems like an indicator of a coming religious revival, it’s a source of concern for some.
“The real issue here by way of long term significance is not ‘young Christian men’ becoming more religious; it's young Christian women becoming less so – including Catholics ones,” said William Dinges, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Culture in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America. “This is important because women in general have played the primary role in the religious socialization of children. In this regard, ponder the potential long-term institutional consequences of an alienated female constituency."
Survey says
Indeed, the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute found last year that within Generation Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – almost 40% of women describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, compared with 34% of men.
It found that about two-thirds of women ages 18 to 29 say that “most churches and religious congregations” do not treat men and women equally.
Dinges opined that the “Catholic version” of the male "more religious" phenomenon “would relate, in part, to the growth of more conservative/traditionalist/'rad trad' constituencies enamored by the Latin Tridentine Mass, home schooling, large families etc. -- and more conventional patriarchal roles.”
Just a blip?
Mark M. Gray, a Research Associate Professor at Georgetown University and the Director of Catholic Polls at Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), cited data from the latest publication of the General Social Survey, which is from 2022: for people aged 18-24, about a third (33.1%) of men do not have a religious affiliation compared to 40.9% of women.
But the numbers surveyed were relatively small, Gray cautioned, and had margins of sampling error that “make it difficult to discern whether this is a real difference in the population,” he cautioned.
“It is just a glimpse consistent with” the findings that The Times’ Ruth Graham reported.
CARA’s executive director, Fr. Thomas P. Gaunt, S.J., commented, “This is something new. Only time will tell if it is a ‘blip’ or a trend.”
