Political Science Publications
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
3-2017
Journal
Oxford University Press
First Page
266
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190468910.003.0022
Last Page
274
Abstract
Gender differences in religious belief and behavior are evident throughout the American Christian landscape. Though many scholars have compared women and men on numerous religious measures, very little research exists on the exploration of Bible reading—one of the most common forms of religious personal devotionalism and practice. Using the Bible in American Life module of the General Social Survey, I test a series of hypotheses to gain a better understanding of whether and how men and women read the Bible differently, which may contribute to the many gender differences in religiosity that may have consequences outside church walls. Women were more likely than men to have read the Bible in the past year, had read it more days in the past month, and were more likely to read it as a matter of “personal prayer and devotion,” even when controlling for demographic and other key variables.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Citation of this paper:
Friesen, Amanda. 2017. “How American Women and Men Read the Bible.” In The Bible in American Life, Philip Goff, Arthur Farnsley, and Peter Theusen, eds. Oxford University Press. 266-274.
