Reply To: Is there any correlation between Atheism and gender?

Unseen wrote:

BeckyL wrote:

@Unseen – I wonder if maybe women seem more susceptible to “woo” because at least the woo-ish people listen to them. Maybe women are into science-y things too, but maybe science-y guys aren’t giving them a chance.

But most of the woo-ish listeners are likely to be female as well.

Males live in a culture where you make chances for yourself. The women who succeed tend to be those who adapt to and adopt this sort of culture.

You won’t find any disagreement here. I am a champ at making chances for myself and I learned early on that being lady-like in the sense that “ladies shouldn’t make a fuss” doesn’t do me any favors. The trade off is that by using male tactics, I am perceived to be a ball-buster and a bitch… for behaving exactly the same way as my male counterparts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that I shouldn’t be so plain-spoken. On the other hand, experts on career advancement tell women that they should be plain-spoken in order to be heard and to get results. It’s a catch-22 for women. And, if you are fighting that sort of battle all of the time at work, do you really want to fight that battle when the discussion turns to atheism or when you are discussing science (supposing those areas aren’t your line of work)? I think for many women, the answer is no. It’s just easier to be quiet. Are there more men who are atheists than there are women? Personally, I doubt it, but until it is more comfortable for women to speak up, it’s difficult to know for sure.