Gender, profession, and non-conformal religiosity

Abstract

Possible relations between gender, profession and non-conformal religiosity are discussed, and patterns of religiosity are analysed among Danes in the social, educational, and health care (SEH) professions with a view to clarifying the role of gender versus that of profession in propagating non-conformal religiosity. The data were taken from an interview study of the Danish Baha'i community and from the Danish part of the European Values Study (EVS). The conversion accounts of SEH professionals among the Danish Baha'is indicate a specific religious socialization in the SEH professional environment. The EVS data demonstrate that non-conformal religiosity is much more prevalent among SEH professionals than among the rest of the population. Three to five times as many practised meditation, yoga, or healing, and belief in reincarnation was also more widespread. Regarding these indicators of non-conformal religiosity, no differences were found between men and women in the SEH professions. For persons not in the SEH professions, indicators of both conformal and non-conformal religiosity showed a higher prevalence among women than among men. This corroborates the hypothesis that the female-dominated SEH professional environment exerts a strong socialization to non-conformal religiosity, a socialization that may outweigh the general effect of gender.