
CV NEWS FEED // According to recent polling, Gen Z women are the first generation to outnumber men in abandoning organized religion in the U.S.
According to an April 4 American Storylines article, a new study has found that “the gender divide in religiosity has flipped.” For decades, polling consistently showed men were more likely than women to drop faith-related habits.
While men constituted 57% of those among the Baby Boom generation who left their faiths, and women only 43%, the trend has since changed. Now, 54% of Gen Z adults who left their faiths are women, and 46% are men.
“Even as rates of religious disaffiliation have risen, conservative churches have been able to hold on to their members, but they are facing more of an uphill battle keeping this current generation of young women in the pews,” the article said.
Compared with women of other generations, women in Gen Z women were more likely to call themselves feminists, to express more concern about “the unequal treatment of women in American society” and to be suspicious of institutions that uphold traditional social arrangements,” the article said.
In the poll conducted by American Storylines, 65% of young women said that they believed churches do not treat men and women equally.
The article continued:
Young women are more educated than the men their age and report greater professional ambition and concern with personal success and growth. Religion and family life are more distant or lower priorities. A recent Pew poll found that it was young men more than women who most aspire to become parents.
Fifty-four percent of young women stated they believed abortion should be available without restriction in recent polling.
The article also notes a correlating rise in LGBTQ identity among women. Approximately 3 in 10 women under 30 identify as something other than straight, and 60% of young people cite “negative treatment of gay and lesbian people” as a significant reason for abandoning the religion they grew up in.
“None of this is good news for America’s places of worship,” the article concluded: “The decline in religious participation and membership has provoked a good deal of concern and consternation, but these latest trends represent a four-alarm warning.”
