Religion and Gender across Europe

Abstract

European societies have experienced a decrease in the social importance of religious issues. Values and attitudes towards gender roles have also changed in the last decades. In European countries, people have become more egalitarian with respect to the position of women in society. The author tries to identify the relationship between secularization and changes in gender values. As a result of secularization, the individual value system has become fragmented and religious values have lost their coordinating role. The investigation employs cross-national and longitudinal analysis of European Values Survey data (1990, 1999), most of the European countries being included in the study. The results indicate the decreasing impact of traditional religious belief on values related to gender roles during the 1990s in Europe and a common pattern of relationships between gender values and religiosity in most European societies.