Why are there more sisters than brothers?

by expatbrit 26 Replies latest jw friends

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  expatbrit

  It is generally acknowledged, and confirmed by experience, that there is a significant gender imbalance in the organisation.

  There are considerably more sisters than there are brothers. That's great for the brothers, because a lot of the poor JW lasses get so desperate that even the most dorky of brothers can take his pick.

  But why is there this imbalance?

  It's true that birth rates show slightly more females being born than males (Mother Nature's way of safeguarding the future?), but this doesn't account for the large disparity among JW's.

  I've never really been able to come up with a satisfactory answer. Is it because women are more susceptible to controlling organisations because of social conditioning? Or does the WTS initial message of paradise and universal healing appeal more to their maternalism?

  Conversely, then, are there more women than men leaving when they find out the real horrors entailed by the WT "paradise"?

  Ladies, please enlighten me.

  Expatbrit.
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  patio34

  Expatbrit,

  Good question and obviously true. It seems this is true in most religions, isn't it? Mark Twain made this observation in "Letters from the Earth" about men not liking to go to church, etc.

  Reason may be that women, by their nature, and raising children, and being more emotional, may be inclined to want a spiritual reason to comfort them and explain the world to their children? Or, maybe because they are the weaker sex, they don't want to be so dependent on men and so have a father-figure god to rely on?

  Signed, Wondering Woman
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  Francois

  Women are more gullible.

  (Ok, Ok, let the stoneing begin.)
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  ozziepost

  Something strange is happening in Aussie churches. Well, at least the ones I have seen, that is.

  I couldn't help but notice the large niumber of males attending. I admit I didn't do a count each time, but my impression is that the ratio is closer to the society 'norm' than in the Kingdom Halls. So, why is this? Presumably the guys are leaving faster than the lasses! And why is that? Good question! Perhaps they've become disillusioned. Many we know fall foul of the judicial committee process, so perhaps that speeds up their departure.

  Ozzie
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  JanH

  Women are more gullible.

  
  Hehe, don't say that without wearing a susp. [>:(] Some writers in a couple of reincarnation threads on this board could lead one towards such a conclusion, yes, but we also know many less gullible women.

  It is actually true that the vast majority of primary converts are women. Men usually come into sects through secondary conversion (that is, dragged in by their wives). I do not know the reason for this. Perhaps it has soemthing to do with the way women's social networks works. Conversions are almost never 'cold' (as in JW door-to-door work), but they use already existing social networks (family, friends, workmates). Sociologists Stark and Bainbridge has done work on the spread of the Moonies (and mention the JWs), which confirms that this is almost exclusively how sects spread. They also confirm that it's a clear over-representation of women as direct converts. I don't have the texts here, so I can't find the exact figures.

  Stark also wrote a fascinating book on the spread of early Christianity, called The Rise of Christianity. See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060677015/qid=986143343/sr=1-2/ref=sc_b_3/107-2763839-6945314 Highly recommended! (I used it a bit in my thesis)

  - Jan
  --
  "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen"
  -- Albert Einstein
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  Undecided

  It seems to me that religion is based on emotions. Women are more emotional than the average man, so more women are taken in by religions apeal to emotions. Just my view.

  Ken P.
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  Tina

  Hi expat(and all) :>
  Gosh,I could make that a thesis topic lol.....I think more women join due to socio-cultural history and politics.....it's not been all that long where women have been viewed(and still not in too many cases) equally as men.
  If one looks back on females roles in society(ies) and their relegation to lower status,and the promulgation of male supremacy throughout the centuries,I believe it has fostered a sense of little power and control with in them.......I don't think many are consciously aware of this either.
  Judeochristian thinking thru the ages (and others as well) also presented women as morally and spiritually inferior,as well as physically and intellectually.
  Women have been viewed this way for centuries and it's gonna take a lot of time for these views to change still.
  I think with this in mind,women who feel little or no sense of personal power /control gravitate to patriarchal type orgs......for this has been the accepted standard for so long.....it's a mind subset that males have total control(doesn't the composition of the GB promote this?) and the social indoctrination of the all powerful father figure.....I think these women don't even see this as giving up control, as they never felt they had it anyway,or have been taught/socialized that they can have it.
  For many women second class staus is comfortable,,,,,since they follow rather than take the risks inherent in real honest sharing of repsonsibility......(I am not speaking of all women here,I know many strong ones,but not in the org)........hmmm.I'm rambling,I'll try to organize these thoughts better later expat,great topic,thanks for letting me spout lol,T
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  ApostasyDuJour

  With the JW puritanical attitude, men are more likely to stray from their marriage vows than women, thus they fall away with considerably less difficulty. Also, because of that same prudishness, I suppose most men aren't as easily proselytized.
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  Francois

  I posted elsewhere that as a much younger person, I went through my uncle's (a congregation overseer way before the elder arrangement) congregation files. My God! There was more humpin' and bumpin' goin' on in that congregation than you could possibly imagine.

  It is not true that a man is more likely to stray than a woman, not if those congregation files were any indication. And my own experience. Well, I always had one foot in and one foot out. And while I was still in, I was, um, "doing" an elder's wife. And he was my best friend in the congregation. Of course, He was "doing" a sister whose husband wasn't a JW, and he was in her house in the first place to "counsel" her on how to get her husband in - while getting "in" himself. HER sister and her husband, a congregation servant, would go on vacation to Panama City, FL, where they would pick up a guy in a bar and take him back to their motel room. The brother would hide in the closet, like, and watch his wife get it on with the guy they had picked up in the bar. After I quit the JWs, several of the sisters in the congregation I was a part of got in touch with me - married and unmarried sisters - for the purpose of, um, well, that wild thing. I remember one said, "Yes, I love Jehovah. I just don't want him right now. I want you right now." I was only too happy to oblige. This was before AIDS. I mean, appearances aside, the JWs I knew were a wild lot, and I had been associated with about half dozen congregations across the southeast US. I think it's all that repression by guys on the governing body who are too old to get it up and don't even remember when they could.
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  waiting

  I read somewhere that Prohibition and women's backing it with marches in the street, etc., had little to do with the sinfulness of drinking. It had everything to do with the point that women, in general, were viewed as lower class and to be beaten whenever the husband/father wished. Drinking and beatings tend to go hand in hand.

  Thus, the women wanted the men to stop drinking because they wanted the men to stop beating them - sometimes to death.

  How does this tie in? Women for centuries have been second class - and in some countries/cultures/religions - still are. I think a lot of women are looking for a reason *why* in their lives. Sense of security, a family/community of acceptance, and if not equality, at least of not being truly second class (just a *weaker vessel.*)

  When women come into the WTBTS, the teaching is held out to them of peace and security in a spiritual paradise, new mothers/fathers/brothers/sisters. Who can top that? Particularily if your life isn't all that great, the allure is of great promise.

  waiting