Gen Z women are increasingly leaving behind the faith groups they were raised in, which marks a departure from past trends, per USA Today.
In previous generations, American women were more religious on average than American men, the article said.
The USA Today reported drew on research from the Survey Center on American Life, which has been tracking the lives of members of Gen Z.
The research showed that evolving attitudes on sociopolitical issues are fueling the new trend.
Religion and Gen Z
In the past, women were less likely to leave the faith group they were raised in than men.
“In the Baby Boom generation, 57% of people who disaffiliated were men, while only 43% were women,” the Survey Center on American Life reported.
As members of Gen Z have entered adulthood, a new pattern has emerged.
“Fifty-four percent of Gen Z adults who left their formative religion are women; 46% are men,” the survey found.
The reasons given by young women to explain why their leaving organized religion are varied, but a few issues stand out, according to the survey report.
“For most young women who leave it’s not about any one issue. … Rather it was a steady accumulation of negative experiences and dissonant teachings that made it difficult or impossible to stay,” the report said.
Some are frustrated with their faith group’s approach to LGBTQ rights, gender and reproductive rights, according to USA Today.
In general, young women are growing more liberal, and they’ve grown suspicious of institutions that uphold conservative ideals the survey report said.
“Women are less inclined to be involved with churches that don’t want us speaking up, that don’t want us to be smart,” said Mojica Rodríguez, 39, who is an activist and author with a divinity school degree.
The rise of the ‘nones’
Gen Z, in general, is less religious than any previous generation in American history.
Many young people, as well as a significant share of their older peers, don’t identify with a faith group and are described by researchers as religious “nones.”
Though the rise of religious ‘nones’ in America has plateaued, per an article from the Deseret News, the size of the “none” population today is much larger today than it was in the late 20th century.
If women, who have traditionally taken up the majority of pew space, continue to drift away from the church at a greater number than men, it spells peril for the health of congregations across the country, according to Christianity Today.
“Evangelical women have long attended church at higher rates than evangelical men. But today that gap is narrowing, not because more men are coming but because more women are leaving. Such women are increasingly likely to ‘deconstruct’ their faith or identify as ‘nones’,” reads a Christianity Today review of a book about single evangelical women leaving their churches.
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Publish date : 2024-08-13 15:55:00
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