Gendering Religious Exit: The Case of the Former Amish

• In Event: 341 - Section on Sociology of Religion Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 06. Religion and Gender

Abstract

There is a large body of scholarship devoted to understanding individuals’ reasons for religious change. This research reveals that individuals do not make religious choices in social vacuums and that social factors including, social class, race, and ethnicity (Alanezi and Sherkat 2008; Ellison 1995; Ellison and Sherkat 1990; Sherkat 2002, 2014) are closely related to religious group membership. However, research to date has focused little on gender shapes religious change. In fact, there are significant gaps in the sociology of religion more generally when it comes to gender—and religion is quite rarely considered in the sociology of gender. This paper attempts to place gender at the center of an examination of individuals’ reasons for leaving their religious group of origin by examining qualitative data from in-depth interviews of 59 former Amish individuals. I find that men’s and women’s narratives vary markedly by gender. First, women’s narratives highlight how behavioral expectations, lifestyle restrictions, and opportunities tied to Amish womanhood motivate their religious exits, while former Amish men focus on more general displeasure with Amish lifestyles. Second, men and women who were Amishly married before leaving tend to construct the factors motivating their exit in different ways. While men focus on the individual ideas and experiences that prompted their leaving (with the help of their wives), former Amish women tend to portray these ideas and experiences as joint ones that they shared with their husbands. This study suggests that future research on religious exit should more fully incorporate questions about gender.

Author

• Caroline L. Faulkner, Franklin & Marshall College