Gender and religion: Deconstructing universality, constructing complexity

The universality of higher female religiousness and insufficiency of any social explanation have led to proposals that it is a product of psychological or physiological differences. However, the female advantage in religiousness is not universal. Distinguishing affective (personal piety) from active (organizational participation) religiousness, in a third of nations (World Values Survey) women are no higher than men in active religiousness. Among Jews and Muslims worldwide, men are more religious than women. Combined, social factors actually explain much of the gender disparity in U. S. religiousness (General Social Survey); with personality, all of it in active religiousness. The author discusses implications for understanding gender.