From a Washington Times article "Marriage as a Mormon value"
According to [the] Pew [Forum], Mormons have one of the most lopsided gender ratios of any religion: 44 percent men and 56 percent women.
You can't argue with the gender gap -- that's what the data is. The question is why such a disproportional gender gap emerges in the LDS Church. [And let's just take it for granted it's not because the researchers just forgot to factor in all those absent 19-to-21-year-old men off serving missions.]
One set of possible explanations centers on the men. It could be that the high-and-getting-higher expectations focused on young LDS men drives some of them away. It could be that the LDS cultural focus on family and responsibility and work is unappealing to the slacker male twenty-somethings we're hearing so much about these days. It could be that the current feelings-based approach to LDS worship just doens't work for some LDS guys. And just where have all these missing LDS men gone?
A second set of possible explanations centers on the women. What is it they like so much about LDS church activity? One obvious item is how sin has increasingly been redefined as applying almost exclusively to men. Who wouldn't be happy with a church that tells you sin is some other gender's problem, not yours? Recall the explosive reaction to Julie B. Beck's Women Who Know talk: how dare she suggest that saintly LDS women might have flaws? Another would be the fact that the burdens of local church administration fall largely on the men, while declining family size has eased domestic burdens on LDS women.
I suspect some people don't like these possible explanations. Do you have alternative explanations for the unusually large Mormon gender gap? At the very least, it should be a wake-up call to those LDS feminists who depict LDS women as some sort of oppressed underclass in a patriarchal institution. The data tell the opposite story: the women are quite happy while the men are voting with their feet. What LDS feminists need to explain is why women are so happy with the LDS Church.
Related posts on this topic:
- Church Ladies, a WSJ opinion piece.
- In defense of the Pew survey at Juvenile Instructor, with some nice observations on the gender gap.
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I agree 100% with this:
"One obvious item is how sin has increasingly been redefined as applying almost exclusively to men."
No doubt it's difficult to be a Mormon woman, but not as difficult as being a Mormon man.
First, I'll underscore the potential statistical problems as outlined above by Fern. The ones she points out are pretty significant, particularly on the response rate (e.g., one could argue that active LDS women are more likely to be at home and answering the phone than active LDS men). So the numbers themselves may be iffy at best.
That said, it would not surprise me at all if there was a decided imbalance between women and men in terms of self-identification as a Latter-day Saint. It certainly conforms with my own observations throughout 42 years of LDS membership, so I doubt it has much to do with any recent alleged 'touchy-feely' trends.
What's more, it's long been known in LDS missionary work that women (and teenagers) tend to be more responsive to LDS missionary efforts than grown men. I saw it as a full-time missionary in Central America (1972-74) -- back when we were still using the old flannelboard discussions -- and I've seen it over the past 35 years during my various stints as ward mission leader (5 times, including right now) and ward/stake missionary.
This tendency had led to some specific LDS missions at various times over the years telling their full-time missionaries, "Focus on finding families, not women and youth." It is also a perennial subject of debate on LDS blogs and discussion groups, usually under the topic, "Are women more spiritual than men?"
I've also seen the imbalance at times during stints as a membership clerk, ward clerk, and counselor in a bishopric during those same 35 years. In one ward in San Diego where I was ward clerk back in the mid 90s, we had so few active Melchizedek priesthood holders in the entire ward outside of those filling the essential ward callings that the stake shifted the ward boundaries to give us more. Similarly, during the first several years that my wife and I were in the DC Branch (later the Chevy Chase Ward), there was a decided gender imbalance, with far more single women of all ages than single men.
So why the imbalance? Beats me. ..bruce..
In my opinion, there will always be more women than men in the LDS church and the reasons stated above miss the mark. As a missionary for the church and my experience since, I've found women in general to be much more humble, more compassionate, much more willing to make sacrifices (often times including giving up friends, family approval and reputation) and take needed steps to come to Christ.
Men are generally speaking less willing to part with habits and think more about themselves than women... I think that's just common knowledge. While the desire initially may be there with men and be nearly equivalent if not moreso than women... typically the thing that keeps them from joining isn't the church, it's them. Don't mean to bash men as I am one but that's just the way it is...
I would like to know how they match up with other relegions? I bet it would be the same... I just think that LDS are an easy mark to pick on because they actually walk their walk and go to church every week, therefore you have the data and so you can analyze..
This is an unfair assumption to make based on a whole lot of variables..And what are you comparing it to?
I think a few posters have hit the nail on the head but allow me to drive the nail into the. The reason for the imbalance is apparent to anyone who has served an LDS mission in the last 30 years. It is indeed that women join the church more readily than men. No matter the reasons my own anecdotal experience as well as direction given by church leaders tells me this is the ONLY reason worth considering. Since a disproportionate amount of LDS growth comes from conversion, this effect is exxagerated in the LDS faith.
Sure, there could be other nuanced, marginal reasons for the imbalance. But these will be completely secondary to the more significant reason I've described. No need to look further.
In fact I miagine the reason I heard so many messages on my mission regarding seeking out the men in a household was because LDS leaders saw the same statistics you are sighting here. Again and again (as a missionary) I was admonished to do whatever possible to teach the men as well as teh women in a household. We were told point blank that this was because the men are less likely to join and this leaves a family split (not desireable).
What I am more curious about is the impact of this statistic on the future of the church. Will the imbalance change? Given the nature and cause I tend to doubt it.
But don't imagine that moving to Utah or attending a U.S. LDS Sunday service will result in a bevy of women rushing to your side. The statistics only describe membership. I tend to think church attendance and active church members tends to be more even.
Any numbers available on that?
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