Male vs Female atheists

[tapdancingcow]

Not sure if this question has been asked before and I'm new in town so it might have been answered already,  but are there more male atheists on this forum than female atheists?  If so why do you think that is. 

Has there ever been a national survey breaking down atheists according to gender in the US?  I can't find one. Perhaps it's such a touchy topic no one has bothered to conduct one.

Sincerely,

Tap, the female atheist

[Nick]

I think Pat Robertson needs to answer this question.  He seems to know what is good for the married woman so I would assume he knows about the atheist woman also.

[One Above All]

IIRC more men use the Internet than women, so it'd make sense that more men would deconvert, since they have access to more information.

[Nick]

When you go into any Catholic Church, especially weekday masses, you will find little old ladies for the most part.  Few if any men.  Men who show up on Sunday are most likely pressured to by wife/family status stuff.

[screwtape]

but are there more male atheists on this forum than female atheists?  If so why do you think that is. 

yes. 

men can be aggressive and obnoxious on the internet,[1] which also makes them sometimes sexist.  PZ Myers writes about that often lately.  That is, the horrid way a certain male, online faction of atheists treats female online atheists.

I often wish I were the last human on earth.

1.	so can women.  See member Maggie the Opinionated.

[Traveler]

...men can be aggressive and obnoxious on the internet,[1] which also makes them sometimes sexist.  PZ Myers writes about that often lately.  That is, the horrid way a certain male, online faction of atheists treats female online atheists.

I often wish I were the last human on earth.

1.	so can women.  See member Maggie the Opinionated.

I hear you. As a female atheist, I've been treated very well here, and on most atheist forums, but there are times when a sort of armpit-scratching, male locker room talk starts up and I'm, quite frankly, completely repulsed. At times like those, I'm close to giving up online forums where that kind of thing is tolerated, and apparently valued.

[nogodsforme]

Statistically, women are more likely to be religious than men. Black people more than white and older people more than young. Less educated more than higher educated. Urban more than rural. Liberal more than conservative. Lower income more than higher.

All that correlates with less religious people also being likely to be male, white, young, non-conformist, technologically savvy, highly literate, owning a computer/having a job with a computer and having enough leisure time to blog.

When you compare the religious drive-bys with the regular contributors, the education and information literacy levels are dramatically different.

[Traveler]

I'm always surprised how many women believe in the Abrahamic god. A more sexist, repressive, woman-hating god would be hard to imagine. I guess they don't read those parts.

[nogodsforme]

I'm always surprised how many women believe in the Abrahamic god. A more sexist, repressive, woman-hating god would be hard to imagine. I guess they don't read those parts.

They don't "read" any of the bible. They "study" it. A very different process.

And low-income, low-status women get something out of religion --safe social activities, an acceptable excuse to dress up and go out, entertainment, interaction with different people, respect from the community, etc-- that they don't get too often IRL.

And there is this classic: getting your reward in heaven for your sucky existence on earth.

This is my observation from growing up in black communities.

[Traveler]

That makes some sense, nogodsforme. Looking at Maslow's Hierarchy, as an example, its only the few fortunate ones who actually get to a point of affluence (have all that we need) where we can contemplate things from a theoretical, self-actualization point of view.

[Betelnut]

I would venture to say that yes, this forum, there are more men and, since it is a forum for atheists/skeptics, most of the men are atheists.  But in my real life, I know atheist women.  My mom and sister for two.  And me.

Oddly enough though, my sister and I both go to church (Unitarian).  I think females like the social aspect of it all.

[Nam]

My sister and sister-in-law are both atheists. They're out there they are just not discussion forum members, probably for the most part.

-Nam

[kin hell]

This site provides  a table of raw data files  (toward bottom of page)

he speaks of data plots (interpretation) that fail (for me at least) to be visible on site and states (among other things) that the analysis shows

As atheism becomes more common in society the sex ratio abates, though it does not disappear.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/11/sex-differences-in-global-atheism-part-n/#.UZbdsY4mzFI

I often wish I were the last human on earth.

as opposed to the least human ......monkeyboy? (politely suggesting  that aggressiveness and obnoxiousness are not the root cause of sexist behaviour they are only enablers) 


I am in complete agreement with you and Traveler and anyone else who decries apparently sanctioned sexist archetypal behaviour occurring on this site (or anywhere for that matter). Somehow I had thought the intellectual rigour required for an "aware" atheism would be something of a de-buffer  against the male auto-drooling sexism. Sadly this is not always the case, and when it does rear its ugly, it does only debuff the credibility patina of the site.

Elsewhere, it could be argued from a sexist point that as women are more emotional than men, and as theism is at heart(sic) an emotional reading of the universe then women are more likely to unthinkingly give more value to a theist (I can have a personal relationship with the universe)filter.

Fortunately science is destroying that arguement as well.
http://affective-science.org/pubs/1998/FBRobinetal98.pdf

Are Women the ``More Emotional’’ Sex? Evidence From Emotional Experiences in Social Context

Implications

These ® ndings have several major implications. First, sex differences in emotional experience are not as pervasive as the stereotype suggests. Men and women do not differ dramatically in their immediate reports of emo- tional experience, even in contexts that are differentially relevant for men and women (control vs. intimacy). This ® nding raises the possibility that women’ s ``greater emotionality’ ’ is a culturally constructed idea, based on observed differences in emotional expressionÐ differences which are socialised from a very early age. Second, investigators should be wary of including only global, retrospective self-descriptions of emotional experi- ence when conducting research on affective experience. Self-report ratings of this type, although informative, may provide a skewed picture of the emotional life of a personР  a picture skewed in the direction of supporting gender-based stereotypes about emotion.

[kindred]

I don't understand the curiosity in this?

I'm fairly biased against the female gender myself(different social mores and values, make it a hassle to befriend the opposite sex) but I don't really give a hoot about whether the person I'm writing to on teh interwebz is male or female. I can't imagine anybody on teh interbwez as anything but a non-sexual or non-gendered entity because very rarely does anything sexual or gender impacted get discussed here.

[wright]

but are there more male atheists on this forum than female atheists?  If so why do you think that is. 

yes. 

men can be aggressive and obnoxious on the internet,[1] which also makes them sometimes sexist.  PZ Myers writes about that often lately.  That is, the horrid way a certain male, online faction of atheists treats female online atheists.

I often wish I were the last human on earth.

1.	so can women.  See member Maggie the Opinionated.

Myers' blogging on that issue has been an eye-opener for me. For what women and minorities face in the skeptic / atheist communities and society in general. As a middle-aged white male in the US, so many obstacles faced by others are effectively invisible to me; here and on other forums I try to educate myself about such things.

I don't understand the curiosity in this?

I'm fairly biased against the female gender myself(different social mores and values, make it a hassle to befriend the opposite sex) but I don't really give a hoot about whether the person I'm writing to on teh interwebz is male or female. I can't imagine anybody on teh interbwez as anything but a non-sexual or non-gendered entity because very rarely does anything sexual or gender impacted get discussed here.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "different social mores and values"? Your own, or what you perceive as differences between the genders?

And sexual / gender impacted issues get discussed here fairly regularly.

[kindred]

@wright

Women are taught to act a certain way. They're told to speak a certain manner, walk a certain way etc. These traditional gender traits are pressured onto a girl very early on so most of'em conform to them.

I don't like those traditional traits.

[Chronos]

Not sure if this question has been asked before and I'm new in town so it might have been answered already,  but are there more male atheists on this forum than female atheists?  If so why do you think that is.

More males use the internet. This is rapidly changing.

More males spend more hours on the internet. This is not rapidly changing.

Has there ever been a national survey breaking down atheists according to gender in the US?  I can't find one. Perhaps it's such a touchy topic no one has bothered to conduct one.

I cannot point to a survey, but it seems that one was done a few years ago. More women attend church than men and the men that go to church generally do so at the insistence of women. It is my belief that women have a higher emotional quotient likely due to the presence of a uterus that reproduces other humans, giving women a unique connection to the lifecycle. I think their search for why they have to do all the childbearing leads them to talk to a higher power. There must be a god.

[ParkingPlaces]

I suspect it is because women have a life. I don't. Hence I outnumber them here about 10-1. All by myself.

I think otherwise the ratio is about 50:50. So it's all my fault.

[kindred]

^

You merican or what?

What is it with the whole, social life=life thing with mericans? A culture that is incredibly individualistic compared to other cultures calling one's social life as "life" itself seems odd to me.

[kin hell]

Has there ever been a national survey breaking down atheists according to gender in the US?  I can't find one. Perhaps it's such a touchy topic no one has bothered to conduct one.

I cannot point to a survey, >snip<

I can

This site provides  a table of raw data files  (toward bottom of page)

he speaks of data plots (interpretation) that fail (for me at least) to be visible on site and states (among other things) that the analysis shows

As atheism becomes more common in society the sex ratio abates, though it does not disappear.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/11/sex-differences-in-global-atheism-part-n/#.UZbdsY4mzFI

[stokessd]

I'm a male Atheist, but I know more female atheists than male.   There's a number of societal factors that I'd bet makes more male than female atheists, I'd bet it's the same factors that make far more males go into science and technical fields than females.  I have no numbers to back this up, but I'd bet the ratio of M/F atheists fairly closely matches the M/F ratio in hard sciences and technical fields. 

In my view, not only is science corrosive to religion; religion is corrosive to science. - Richard Dawkins

They felt that science would be corrosive to religious belief and they were worried about it. Damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive to religious belief and it’s a good thing. – Steven Weinberg


Sheldon

[Schizoid]

I often wish I were the last human on earth.

As a schizoid I would have no trouble with being the last human on earth.

[Petey]

Urban more than rural. Liberal more than conservative.

Are you sure you didn't accidentally get these backwards?

[neopagan]

They don't "read" any of the bible. They "study" it. A very different process.

Wow... that's wins my profound statement of the day award from my little corner of a brain...

I've been scratching my head for some time (since my fairly recent deconversion) wondering how my fellow believers made sense of what they read and why I ALWAYS had such issues with it.  No more issues with it since I see it's all BS.

You are 100% correct - in the bible study circle jerks, they just read a (nice) passage, talk about what it means to me personally and then the personal story sharing time starts, followed by prayers for aunt Gertie to be healed of old age, the wife to get preggers, and the dog to be safe when he gets neutered tomorrow -  and everyone goes home happy and credulous.

[nogodsforme]

If people read the bible with the depth of criticism of my MIL's senior center weekly book group, they would deconvert en masse. But how many times have we heard: "Well, see, you can't read the bible like any other book." Because if you do, you will realize it is bogus!

[Lectus]

As a hypnotist I can tell you women are more suggestible than men.

This is why you find more religious women. Men are less affected by subtle suggestion.

I've seen plenty of hypnotism in religious cults.

[Seppuku]

I think women on the internet visiting forums plays on the figures as well. I normally find on a forum the number of male members is larger than female, so I think it's hard to tell, though I know typically religiosity is higher in women, but I think it can be a societal thing. But I know many women who are non-religious, though the majority of my religious friends are women.

I wouldn't say it reflects anything societal. I don't think the forum can offer a fair enough depiction for that, but we do see a variety, we've got/had atheists here who are conservative, liberal, English (and Europe in general), American, Aussie, gay, straight, bi, black, white, hispanic, of an urban background, of a rural background (like me), wealthy, poor, moderate, Buddhism, Nihilist, Humanist, conspiracy theorist, gun nut, gun hater, gun-right supporter, male, female (not sure if we've had anybody transgendered) and we've even had amputees and there's problem more I've missed or have not been aware of. I can say at least this forum gets plenty of diversity amongst its atheists.

[Betelnut]

I think women on the internet visiting forums plays on the figures as well. I normally find on a forum the number of male members is larger than female,

??????  Totally depends on the forum.  I regularly go to three other forums, TWOP, eHell, and an adoption one.  Two of the three (eHell and the adoption one) are predominantly female.  TWOP (Television without pity), I believe, is pretty even.

[Graybeard]

Has there ever been a national survey breaking down atheists according to gender in the US?  I can't find one. Perhaps it's such a touchy topic no one has bothered to conduct one.

Sincerely,

Tap, the female atheist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_the_United_States#Demographics


Gender    % Irreligious
Men   ...............23%
Women..........  17%