Gender and Paganism in Census and Survey Data
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v15i1-2.61Keywords:
census data, gender, Paganism, Pagan census revisited, sexual stereotypes.Abstract
Researchers often bemoan the lack of hard data on the size of the Pagan movement. There are, however, some national censuses that collect data on modern Pagans. These include the censuses of four Anglophone countries – Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. Using figures from the censuses of these four nations as well as from a large survey study, the Pagan Census Revisited, the present paper will discuss the demographic and attitudinal profiles of Pagans, with a focus on the differential distribution of gender. Congruent with prior research, the current study finds that the majority of Pagans are women – though a few traditions tend to be dominated by men. And while we uncovered certain gender-stereotypical differences between male and female Pagans, we also found numerous counter-stereotypical differences.References
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Butler, Jenny. “The Neo-Pagan Ritual Year and Gender.” Cosmos 25 (2009): 191–200.
Culpepper, Emily. “The Spiritual Movement of Radical Feminist Consciousness.” In Understanding the New Religions, edited by Jacob Needleman and George Baker, 220–34. New York: Seabury Press, 1978.
Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, and Lisbeth Mikaelsson. Kulturens Refortrylling. Oslo, Norway: Universitetsforlaget, 2005.
Goodwin, Megan. “Gender.” In The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements, edited by George D. Chryssides and Benjamin E. Zeller, 195–206. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Jacobs, Janet. Divine Disenchantment: Deconverting from New Religions. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.
——.“The Economy of Love in Religious Commitment: The Deconversion of Women from Nontraditional Religious Movements.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23, no. 2 (1984): 155–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1386106
——. “Hidden Truths and Cultures of Secrecy: Reflection on Gender and Ethnicity in the Study of Religion.” Sociology of Religion 61, no. 4 (2000): 433–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3712527
Jorgensen, Danny L., and Scott E. Russell. “American Neopaganism: The Participants’ Social Identities.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 38, no. 3 (1999): 325–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1387755
Lewis, James R. “Conversion to Satanism: Constructing Diabolical Identities.” In The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity, edited by Per Faxnell and Jesper Aagaard Petersen, 145–66. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
——. “The Devil’s Demographics: Changes in the Satanic Milieu, 2001–2009.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 2, no. 2 (2011): 87–125.
——.”New Data on Who Joins NRMs and Why: A Case Study of the Order of Christ/Sophia.” Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies 2 (2006): 91–104.
——. 2012. “The Pagan Explosion Revisited: A Statistical Postmortem to the Ten Witch Fad.” The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies 14(1): 128–39.
——. Seeking the Light. Los Angeles: Mandeville Press, 1997.
——. “Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile.” Marburg Journal of Religious Studies 6, no. 2 (2001): 1–25.
Lewis, James R., and Andreas Bauman. “New Religions and the New Zealand Census: Are Meaningful Generalizations About NRM Members Still Possible?” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 2, no. 2 (2011): 179–200.
Partridge, Christopher. “Indigenous and Pagan Traditions.” Encyclopedia of New Religions, edited by Christopher Partridge, 269–70. Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2004.
Rose, Stuart. “An Examination of the New Age Movement: Who is Involved and What Constitutes its Spirituality.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 13, no. 1 (1998): 5–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537909808580818
——. “New Age Women: Spearheading The Movement?” Women’s Studies: An Inter-Disciplinary Journal 30, no. 3 (2001): 329–50.
Tøllefsen, Inga B. “Art of Living: Religious Entrepreneurship and Legitimation Strategies.” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 2, no. 2 (2011): 255–79.
——. “Notes on the Demographic Profiles of Art of Living Practitioners in Norway and Abroad.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 3(2) (2012): 95–110.
Tøllefsen, Inga B., and James R. Lewis. “The Cult of Geeks: Religion, Gender, Scientology.” In Handbook of Scientology, edited by James R. Lewis and Kjersti Hellesøy. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.
Trzebiatowska, Marta, and Steve Bruce. Why are Women More Religious than Men? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608102.001.0001
Walter, Tony, and Grace Davie. “The Religiosity of Women in the Modern West.” British Journal of Sociology 49, no. 4 (1998): 640–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/591293
Wilson, Bryan, and Karel Dobbelaere. A Time to Chant: The Soka Gakkai Buddhists in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Published
2014-08-12
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Lewis, J. R., & Tollefsen, I. B. (2014). Gender and Paganism in Census and Survey Data. Pomegranate, 15(1-2), 61-78. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v15i1-2.61
