Espousing Apostasy and Feminism? Older and Younger British Female Apostates Compared

Abstract

It has been acknowledged that white western men are more likely to leave their former religion behind (Altemeyer and Hunsberger, 1997, Zuckerman, 2012), or declare themselves of no religion (Brown and Lynch, 2012, Baker and Smith, 2009), than women (Beit-Hallahmi, 2007). But it has not been unknown for women, even in the past, both of the older and younger generations to do the same (Budd 1977; Schwarz 2010). This article, based on two small scale studies in the United Kingdom, considers a group of older and a group of younger women ‘apostates’, to determine what leads them to do this and examines whether developing a feminist orientation plays a role. Religious women in second wave feminism were often ignored, having been considered to have chosen patriarchy over feminism while there is some evidence that women with feminist attitudes are less likely to be religious (Redfern and Aune, 2013, 154, Furseth, 2010, 210). Data were subjected to inductive thematic analysis to determine overarching themes, while the three-fold typology of apostasy developed by Zuckerman (2012) allowed the authors to examine similarities and differences between older and younger women who choose to leave religion behind. They conclude reasons for apostasy are various, certainly not solely attributable to developing a feminist orientation.