Religion and Gender Ideology: Uncovering the Relationship between American Religious Schools and the Gender Ideologies of American Young Adults

Past research has shown that factors related to both schooling and religious background can influence the development of gender role ideologies. Nevertheless, there has been little analysis of differences in gender role beliefs held by those educated in different religious school sectors. This project uses data from two nationally representative studies to examine whether or not past high school education in Protestant schools, Catholic schools, and homeschools is associated with differing levels of support for two measures of traditional gender role belief among American young adults when compared to past education in public schools. The results show that Catholic education is largely insignificant with regard to these measures. In contrast, Protestant school education and homeschool education maintain positive associations with support for these aspects of traditional gender role belief, though they differ in their levels of association. In addition, interactions between gender and schooling types are significant in accounting for outcomes associated with one of these measures.