Religion and Social groups

- Women are more religious than men - 2005 1.8 mil women in England were chrch goers - 1.36 mil men

- Miller & Hoffman - women have greater interest in religion - stronger personal committment - attend church more

- Bruce - twice as many women as men involved in sects

- Socialistation and the gender role -Miller & Hoffman - women are taught to be more passive, obedient & caring - religious values - more likely to work part time - more time for religion - Davie - women are closer to key human questions concerning birth & death - more in need of religious explanation

- New age and women - more in tune with nature and healing (childbirth) - women like the idea of NAM's because it is authentic and real 

-Compensation for deprivation - Glock and Stark - Organismic deprivation - mental health problems lead to religious healings - Ethically deprived - conservative - see world in moral decline - same view as sects - Socially deprived - women more likely to be poor - look for religious explanations to poverty 

- securalisation  - Brierley - women leaving church at a much quicker rate then men - increased pressure from other spheres of life - Brown - Women rejecting traditional gender roles 

- Higher religious paricipation in most minority ethnic groups - Muslims, Hindus an non White christians are more likely to see religion more importantly than white christians

- 11% of white Anflicans see religion as being important in their lives oppossed to 74% of Muslims

- Most ethnic minorities come from poorer contries with traditional values -Cultural defence - Bruce - Religion acts as cultural identity in an uncetain and hostile environment - Cultural transition - Religion helps to ease the transition between cultures at times of immigration - Pryce - Culture defence and transition important in Britian - Deprivation - Marginalisation from mainstream society

-Securelistion - Rarther than helping young ethnic minorities fit within society religion might be used as a rejection of the host society

-Samad - Young south Asian Muslims reject their parents conformity to cultural traditions whilst at the same fully embracing their muslim identity  - Muslim identity is a sorce used to resis parental opinion & Challenge family prohibition 

- Not including children and the elderly - the older people get, the more likely they are to attend church

-Under 15 more likely to go to church - taken by parents 

- over 65 less likely to go to church because they are sick or disabled

-Aging efect - Heelas - Approaching death - Generational effect - Each generation is less religious than the last - more older people in church 

- Young people and religion - declining attraction - old fasioned & controversial - Spiritual market place - Declining religious education - Pragmatic reasons - not enough time 

- Securalisation

-Age had no impact for some religious movements - Pentecostalism

-Young people have not lost all religiosity - new forms of worship in the secular world - Techno dance scene