The religious gender gap within Dutch relationships: Explaining the persistent religious gender gap in the Netherlands using a multifactorial approach

Abstract

Like other Western countries, in the Netherlands women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. In this article, we set out to explain this Dutch religious gender gap regarding belief in God, prayer and church attendance. Using high quality survey data (LISS 2015), a comprehensive model is built combining social and psychological differences between Dutch men and women. These gender differences are operationalized where they are most strongly experienced, i.e. within personal relationships. We find that the gender gaps within Dutch relationships regarding belief in God and prayer can be explained by gendered religious socialization and gendered mental health dependency - and for belief in God additionally by the gendered level of agreeableness. For the gender gap regarding church attendance, gendered religious socialization explains the religious gender gap.