Reconceptualizing Religious Risk: Gender and Atheism

• In Event: 430 - Regular Session. Religion and Intersecting Identities

Abstract

Studies of religion have consistently found that women are more religious than men, and some have explained this in terms of gender differences in risk preferences. Accordingly, men are less likely than women to be religious because they are more willing to risk punishment after death. This paper argues that the emphasis on what happens after death ignores possible risks and rewards to religiosity that are tangible in this life. Based on 39 in-depth qualitative interviews with self-identified atheists in the United States, we evaluate gender differences in the experience of stigma, and its associated this-worldly risks. We argue that a fundamental conceptual flaw in risk-preference theories for gender differences in religiosity is the assumption that men and women experience identical risks with different preferences, rather than facing different risks. We argue that differential actual risks to rejecting religion mean that men and women with identical risk preferences will respond with different behavior (i.e. if men and women have the same risk preferences but women face a larger risk, women will seem more risk-averse). The data on stigma from acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family members reveal that women face larger social and material risks from identifying as atheist and that others are more likely to dismiss women’s lack of belief or socially ostracize women atheists. Partly in consequence, women and men use different strategies for managing stigma, with women more likely to conceal or selectively reveal their religious beliefs, while men are more likely to be open or even confrontational.

Authors

• Amanda Marie Schutz, University of Arizona

• Louise Marie Roth, University of Arizona