A Woman's Religion?

That's the title of Chapter 7 in Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2004) by Linda Woodhead, in which the author tackles the general problem of the gender gap (women are disproportionately represented in the pool of church-goers across all Christian denominations, including the LDS Church). Why so many women and why not more men in most congregations?

Here is how the author describes the situation.

[B]oth the language and the images used to depict [the Christian God] are overwhelmingly masculine. ... 'He' is Father and Son, King, Judge, Lord, and Master. A hierarchical relation between the sexes is built into the hierarchical scheme that lies at the heart of a Christianity of higher power. If the Christian God were truly sexless or above gender, it would be permissible to conceive 'Her' in female as well as male terms. In actual fact, however, the whole logic of Christianity renders such representation difficult and unusual.

The author's attempt at an explanation notes that church organization, by "legitimating masculine domination and de-legitimating female resistance," is attractive to men (or at least male self-interest), but that relatively few men generally have access to active roles, hence the relative disinterest shown by many men. "Sitting passively in the pew and being preached to does not necessarily appeal to those who are used to more active and vocal roles in society, especially when the message being preached has to do with the importance of humility, weakness, submission, and self-sacrificial love."

But that same message has obvious appeal to most women. "Women benefit in two ways: first, by the restraint that appeal to Christian virtues may place on the unbridled exercise of male power; and second, by the recognition and affirmation of the value of typically feminine roles, virtues, and dispositions."

It is an enlightening chapter, as one rarely (never?) encounters clear discussion of this interesting problem in LDS sources, and LDS feminist sources tend to favor complaint and prescription over examination and explanation.

Following the author's reasoning (obviously covered in greater detail in the chapter than I have summarized above), you would think that the extension of the LDS priesthood to most LDS men and the broad distribution of local leadership positions would mean that LDS men are relatively more active than in other denominations, but this is not the case. The Mormon gender gap remains puzzling.

Comments

[Kristine]

"LDS feminist sources tend to favor complaint and prescription over examination and explanation."

Gratuitous swipes like that are likely to discourage people who might otherwise want to engage the topic with you. They might also make people wonder how familiar you actually are with LDS feminist work.

[Dave]

Links or references are welcome, Kristine. I would invite you to read Woodhead's chapter as well.

[Kristine]

Men don't like being infantilized and rendered powerless, but women are used to it (and appreciate it when at least some men get a taste of it) isn't exactly an appealing explanation or compelling thesis.

[Dave]

The gender gap is a well documented puzzle that resists easy explanation. There is a distinct shortage of appealing explanations and no compelling ones. But you can't really argue with the data or the form of the problem: if Christian (or LDS) churches historically -- and, to a lesser degree, presently -- disfavor women, why is the participation rate by women consistently higher?

Here's how the author laid out the problem at the beginning of her last chapter:

Our final task ... is to investigate the religion's appeal to the different sexes. The most pressing task is to explain why women appear to be more numerous and more active in the churches whenever and wherever we have hard evidence about such matters. ... Christianity has traditionally excluded women from positions of power, and often places more emphasis on the connections between divinity and masculinity than divinity and femininity. So in fact we must deal with two questions: not only 'why so many women?', but also 'why not more men'?

[Kristine]

I agree that it's a confounding issue, Dave. I was just objecting to your (snotty, throwaway) condemnation of LDS feminists in particular for not having an answer to it.

[Clark]

I agree Kristine. It sounds too much like a "just so" explanation and one likely missing any evidence.

I agree that LDS feminism isn't all about complaining but you have to admit that there sure is a lot of that going on under the feminist rubric rather than careful analysis. But I do think there has been careful analysis whether one necessarily agrees with it.

[Kristine]

Given the treatment of women in Christianity, as described by Woodhead (and countless others), and the position of women in Mormondom's iteration of that hierarchy, is there any reason why complaint would not be a dominant mode of feminist work, or why analysis of the situation would not inevitably generate some complaint? It's not only "analysis" if it's cheerful and dispassionate.

All of that said, Laurel Ulrich, Claudia Bushman and others have spoken of the remarkable socialization of Mormon men--there probably is an interesting discussion to be had around the fact that the Mormon gender gap is probably (how would we know?) smaller than in some other Christian denominations.

You just don't get to have that interesting discussion if you start by calling feminist scholars unanalytical whiners, because that betrays both appalling arrogance and ignorance of the body of Mormon feminist work.