Changing roles of religiosity and patriarchy in women's employment in different religions in Europe between 2004 and 2016

Objective: This paper seeks to understand the changing roles of religiosity and gender attitudes in the employment of women in Europe between 2004 and 2016. Background: Religiosity and gender traditionalism are both considered to decrease the likelihood of women’s employment. This study argues that this relationship needs to be decoupled, as religiosity and gender traditionalism have different underlying mechanisms. Method: We analysed rounds 2 (2004), 4 (2008), 8 (2010), and 10 (2016) of the European Social Survey (ESS), which include, among other data, information on employment, religious affiliation, religiosity, and gender role attitudes in 16 countries (N=39,233). Results: We show that taking religiosity into account further increases the already increased likelihood of employment for Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish women compared to women with no religion. We also find, however, that religiosity decreases the employment gap between Muslim and Orthodox women on the one hand and secular women on the other. Including gender role attitudes in the model only marginally explains the employment gap. Conclusion: Our findings support the idea that the mechanisms that underlie the relationships religiosity and traditional gender role attitudes have with women's employment differ. Over time, the likelihood of employment increases for women of all religions, except for Muslim women, among whom it drops.

Paid parental leave and fathers’ involvement: capturing fathers’ gender beliefs and fathering perceptions

This study examines how multidimensional gender and fathering beliefs of fathers may explain their relative involvement in childcare after considering paid leave uptake. We draw on cross-sectional survey data from one German state, which allow us to distinguish three belief dimensions: (1) gender traditionalism and essentialism, (2) fathering attitudes, and (3) fathering self-concepts and self-efficacy. By means of multiple linear regression models we investigate how the different dimensions of gender and fatherhood beliefs relate to fathers’ relative involvement in basic and indirect childcare tasks. Our results show that gender (essentialist) ideologies and fatherhood attitudes were strongly associated with fathers’ relative involvement in both childcare domains. The higher fathers perceived self-efficacy in fathering, the more involved they were in basic but not indirect care. All belief dimensions mediated the positive association of fathers’ uptake of paid leave with their involvement in basic childcare.

A Cross-Country Comparison of Gender Traditionalism in Business Leadership: How Supportive Are Female Supervisors?

This study investigates whether female supervisors hold less traditional attitudes towards gender in business leadership than male supervisors and non-supervisors, and whether these attitudinal differences vary between countries. It uses the sociological notions of self-interest and exposure and a multilevel approach to advance and expand the investigation of gender attitudes in the domain of business leadership. Two recent waves of the World Values Survey (2005/2009; 2010/2014) for 22 OECD countries were analysed with multilevel logistic regression. Findings indicated less gender traditionalism among female supervisors and among people living in countries with a larger share of women in managerial positions and a less traditional normative climate towards working women. No such attitudinal differences between individuals were found when comparing countries with and without a national legislative gender quota policy. Finally, men’s attitudes towards gender traditionalism in business leadership appeared to be more susceptible to the country context than those of women.

Formal or Functional? Traditional or Inclusive? Bible Translations as Markers of Religious Subcultures

English Bible translations are often classified along two axes: (1) whether their translation approach pursues “formal correspondence” (prioritizing literalness) or “functional equivalence” (prioritizing meaning); and (2) whether their translation approach emphasizes “gender-traditionalism” (translating gendered language literally) or “gender-inclusivism” (minimizing unnecessarily gendered language). Leveraging insights from research on how religious subcultural capital shapes consumption patterns, we examine how indicators of conservative Protestant subcultural attachment potentially shape Christians’ choices of Bible translation along these axes. Compared with Catholics and “other Christians,” Conservative Protestants are more likely to read functional equivalence translations. Biblical literalists are more likely to read gender-traditionalist translations, but curiously no more likely than others to read formal correspondence translations. The link between conservative Protestant affiliation and reading a gender-traditionalist or inclusive Bible is heavily influenced by how we classify the New International Version. Importantly, we also find Bible reading and overall religiosity are positively associated with reading functional equivalence and gender-inclusive Bibles. Thus while conservative Bible beliefs seem to incline Christians toward translations that reflect conservative subcultural priorities (gender-traditionalism), consistent Bible practice is more prevalent among Christians who read more dynamic and inclusive translations.

Is a “Christian America” a More Patriarchal America? Religion, Politics, and Traditionalist Gender Ideology

Recent research shows that Americans who adhere to Christian nationalism―an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity and American civic life―tend to hold authoritarian and exclusionary attitudes, particularly regarding ethno-racial minorities and non-traditional family forms. Such findings suggest a fundamental connection between Christian nationalism and rigid symbolic boundaries, which would likely extend to Americans’ understanding of gender roles. Drawing on notions connecting religious nationalism with defenses of patriarchal norms and utilizing a recent national, random sample of American adults, the current study examines the link between contemporary Christian nationalism and traditionalist gender ideologies. Our analyses reveal that Christian nationalism is the strongest predictor of holding a more traditionalist gender ideology, even after taking into account a host of political and religious characteristics. Moreover, the relationship between Christian nationalism and gender traditionalism holds across religious traditions, including more gender-egalitarian groups like Mainline Protestants and even the unaffiliated. We conclude by highlighting the implications of these findings for understanding contemporary populist support for Donald Trump, which previous studies have shown is undergirded by both Christian nationalism and sexism.

Male and Female He Created Them: Gender Traditionalism, Masculine Images of God, and Attitudes toward Same-Sex Unions

Prior research demonstrates that religion and gender traditionalism are associated with less favorable attitudes toward same-sex unions because of its deviation from customary religious doctrine and traditional patterns of gender behavior. Using a national random sample of American adults, this study examines the link between religion, gender traditionalism, and attitudes toward same-sex unions by utilizing a novel measure of gender traditionalism that is distinctly religious as well. Recent work on images of God reveals that individuals’ views of the divine provide a glimpse of their underlying view of reality. The results suggest that individuals who view God as a “he” are much less favorable toward same-sex unions than those who do not view God as masculine, even while controlling for gender traditionalist beliefs and other images of God. Individuals who view God as masculine are signaling a belief in an underlying gendered reality that influences their perceptions of the proper ordering of that reality, which extends to marriage patterns. These findings encourage future research to identify innovative measures of religion that incorporate aspects of other social institutions to account for their interconnected nature.

Relative Employment, Gender Beliefs, and Intimate Partner Coercion and Violence Against New Mothers Across Marital and Residential Contexts

This research builds on prior studies of intimate partner victimization by examining the impact of women’s and men’s relative employment, gender traditionalism, and gender distrust on coercive control and physical victimization among married, cohabiting, and noncohabiting couples with infants. It merges feminist approaches that emphasize the gendered meaning of work, power, and violence with prior insights regarding differences in levels of intimate violence across family forms. Specifically, this research recognizes that there is variation across married, cohabiting, and dating contexts in the symbolic meaning of work, the salience of traditionalism, and the tenuous status of relationships that may activate gender distrust in the production of compensatory violence and control. Logistic regression models using baseline and Year 1 Fragile Families and Child Well-Being data ( n = 2,337) indicate that the predictors of coercive control differ across couple types, with the relative odds of coercion higher among couples in which only the woman is employed, but only when cohabiting. Consistent with expectations, men’s gender traditionalism increases coercive control, but only in the context of marriage. Relative employment and gender beliefs did not predict physical victimization among any couple types, but a moderating effect of men’s gender distrust on women’s sole employment was identified, such that status inconsistency in employment increases the relative odds of physical victimization only when the male partner is distrustful of women.

Non-Traditional Wives With Traditional Husbands

Feminist scholars have argued that husband gender traditionalism is one of the root causes of spousal violence against women. Using couple-level data from Hong Kong ( N = 871 couples), this article argues that a second mechanism—couple gender value mismatch—also explains husband-to-wife physical assault. Our findings show that a husband’s gender traditionalism is positively associated with husband-to-wife physical assault only when the husband is coupled with a wife who has non-traditional gender attitudes. Similarly, egalitarian gender attitudes in wives are positively associated with husband-to-wife physical assault only when a non-traditional wife is coupled with a traditional husband.