Atheism in relation to Sex and other stats
Posted on: July 21, 2007 - 3:56am
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Atheism in relation to Sex and other stats
I'm confused about the ratio of men and women who don't believe. I'd expect to see relatively the same number, but that just doesn't seem to be the case. I used the myspace browse function and some random zip codes and compared some numbers. It looks like atheist men outnumber atheist women around 2 to 1. I looked the stats of those who call them self agnostic and that ratio balanced out a little, but not by much.
The question I'm wondering is why or why women don't seem to like to voice their opinion. I'm now wondering if there have been any good studies on this kind of thing and if there are anything else among atheist population that is uneven.
Anyone have thoughts on this?
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I think in general women are socialised to be more conformist than men. Less inclined to challenge authority or the group consensus.
Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
Or maybe women are just incapable of independent thought
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But seriously, I agree. Women are usually much more compliant than men are. You can see this in regards to things like politics and religion (especially in marriage). This isn't the case, though, when they "want to talk."
CrimsonEdge, don't make me come up there!
As a whole, I think women are taught from childhood not to make trouble. It's "unladylike." I think women are expected to keep their opinions to themselves, except, perhaps, to gossip behind people's backs.
Precisely! I am not going to go off on a rant about religion and oppression of women (because I pretty much hate that argument) but society has a problem with outspoken women. And it isn't just the men that have a problem with it - women do as well. Male intellectuals are generally celebrated in society; female intellectuals are ridiculed.
I am not particularly intellectual, however that does not stop men/women from shunning me because they think I am smarter than them. At this point is doesn't bother me - I have found friends that are smarter than me and I love them for it. They appreciate the fact that I can think and I appreciate the fact that they don't find me frightening.
Women "stepping up to the plate" is a change I see coming in society, but, like all change, it takes time. However, there are more and more women like me who are educating the generations behind us to express their thoughts and value one another as equals. I am not a feminist because I loathe the term and will not support a woman just because she is a woman. And, for what it is worth, I see more and more men thinking the same way, which is very encouraging.
The exact numbers are a little hazy, but it's safe to say there are significantly more women than men who believe in god.
If you believe THIS SITE then it's 84% of women and 73% of men. That's significant, if consider that effectively one in four men is an atheist!
Furthermore, this site states that a full 91% of African Americans believe in god, while only 78% of Caucasians.
Harris, in 2003, conducted a poll suggesting that it's 86% to 93% men to women. I'm not going to make a big deal of this, but I think I remember that poll, and I'm pretty sure they didn't leave any real wiggle room for agnosticism, which would tend to slant the results a bit high. People are more likely to concede the possibility of god than to absolutely rule him out, after all.
Also, according to Harris, 2003, the age group 25-29 is the most predominantly non-theist, which gives us some hope, since they're also quite fertile, and tend to pass their values to their children.
Oddly, according to Harris, though 93% of the public believe in god, only 68% believe in the devil and hell, rendering the claim that 93% of the country is Christian invalid.
There are more polls, but they are pretty much consistent. More women believe in god than men.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Another interesting theory, first suggested to me from reading Starrk's The Rise of Christianity:
As has been pointed out in this thread, women have been historically trained from birth to be more submissive than men. A religion that encourages submission to authority would be an easy thing for women to pick up, as it fits their view of the world. This is no secret...
However, women also have a great deal of power that they have always been able to wield to some degree or another, that being sexual power. Men, though less disposed to fall into the submissive mindset necessary for Christianity, are quite likely to say anything they need to to make the "nightly headache" go away.
So, there's a (incompletely documented) phenomenon in theist households where the men profess belief in front of their wives and families, and then express doubt when assured of anonymity. I wish I could remember the source for this, but a google search was less than helpful. If anyone's that interested, I'll do more digging.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I agree with most of the posters here that many women are taught from an early age not to be trouble makers and keep quite. They are taught from an early age their power is better wielded in other ways.
Personally this has been very frustrating at times for me, I love women who will tell me who they are and what they think. I try to encourage the women in my life like my friends (jce, this means you too) and my family to tell me what they are really thinking. I want their true opinion on matters, even if it differs from mine. When we state where we stand and what we think then we can have a dialogue. Otherwise, I feel like I am trying to drag info out of them and getting nowhere.
I consider myself a feminist, but the term has a lot of negative connotations because of the loudest feminists; people tend to think a group is like its loudest speakers. All a feminist is, is, a person (male or female) who believes that women are equal to men socially, economically and politically.
How one feels these equalities are achieved is a different matter altogether. Some of us are anti-porn, some of us are pro-sex, some believe men are generally bad or evil, some of us love and respect men, some of us think that expressing our sexuality in certain ways is being a feminist, while others do not. There are, of course, feminists who are things that aren't necessarily feminist in and of themselves (but some would disagree), such as feminists who are also eco-positive, etc. We come in a variety of styles.
It certainly seems to me that I meet more religious women than men. I also see a lot of women who "sin" judged more harshly than men who sin, including by other women.
The feminine aspect of the word make me feel like I am not an equal part of the solution and/or movement.
Sorry couldn't resist
Yes, some people prefer a term like equalist. Whatever term you want to use, I think people should be treated equally, until they've done something undeserving of equality (after a fair trial, of course).
FWIW, I've always thought the word "humanist" encompasses the equality of the genders, as well as its larger context. It's the word I prefer.
I try really hard to be a feminist, but it really upsets me when I'm told I'm incapable of it because of my gender.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Humanist has other implications that I'm not a fan of. In many ways far too optimistic about human nature. Humanistic theories of child discipline seem to maintain that you can reason with a sceaming toddler.
Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
I have my own issues about the word humanist, too. Too many people focus on whether or not you believe in God when you mention it (they see it as an expression of your personal beliefs in regard to religion), rather than gender equality.
I went to check out a website about a new show, which I missed the first episode of, called Without Prejudice? (The question mark is part of the title.) That site (http://www.gsn.com/withoutprejudice) led me to UnderstandingPrejudice.org, where I took an "Ambivalent Sexism" test. I scored well, with 0.64 for hostile sexism, and 1.00 for ambivalent sexism. Still, there are some things I don't like about the site overall, because the tests (on racism, sexism, etc.) seem to rely on "If you feel this way, you're racist/sexist/bad for eating meat" when some things might be interpreted in different ways by different people. Additionally, the sexism test doesn't really clarify if it's asking do you feel this way about all women or all men, or just some. But it was interesting, anyway.
I've always liked the word equalist when it comes to equality of the sexes. Not that they represent the whole group, but there are feminists out there who I feel like want more power than men to make up for lost time.
There is no way to mix up what an equalist truely believes.
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
I like this term much better than feminist simply because it is a gender neutral term. I do not fall into the group that wants more power to make up for anything, but I would simply like the issue of gender to be set aside in areas that it doesn't belong.
Well, I shant use the word humanist in polite conversation then. (I'm not having kids, so I shant be reasoning with them, either...) I'll try not to have too much hope for humanity...
and for what it's worth, I think women ought to get paid the same as men, and men ought to get paternity leave, and everybody works too much.
I hereby remove myself from this conversation, as frankly, I don't care what word anyone uses.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
This is an example of one of many many studies that show men are more inclined to engage in risky behaviors than women, although your car insurance bill should be adequate evidence by itself.
This one simple difference accounts for a lot of the stuff that manifests as women appearing more "cooperative" or "submissive" than men. It's not that women are more submissive, it's just that men are more likely to go off and try dangerous things on their own--making trouble, asking for raises, changing jobs, or maybe even taking a chance on going to hell?
The evidence is tending to suggest that this is behavior that's a hard-wired default. For example, the same behavior manifests in all non-human primates as well. Human women can be taught to take more appropriate risks (some studies on girls who play sports, for example, find a different risk-taking behavior pattern). But women have to learn to do what men do by default.
"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert
I'm sure there is hard-wiring that makes women more emotion-centered and more nurturing than men in general, but I have seen enough evidence on my own to believe inequality is often caused by religion and other oppressive forces.
I think there are women who want power over men--heck, I've heard a few say so!--but I'm not one of them. (Well, except for my one hundred love slaves, heheheh!) I want the same rights and freedoms as men. I think men are great. Sure, there are assholes, but there are bitches, too. I might be one of them.