Kay Bartel and her husband, Fred, went to church every Sunday after they married.<\/p>\n
She joined church groups, organized church events and volunteered for church projects.<\/p>\n
He put $5 in the offering plate.<\/p>\n
“That was the extent of his religion,” said Rocky Hill resident Kay Bartel, a 70-year-old Protestant whose husband died in 2000. “He never did do anything else.”<\/p>\n
Bartel and her husband reflect a persistent, nationwide difference in how women and men view the role of religion in their lives – a difference confirmed in a recent poll of Connecticut residents for The Courant. Thirty percent of women, including Kay Bartel, ranked their religious beliefs as “extremely” important in their lives compared with 22 percent of men in the telephone survey conducted last month by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n
A significantly larger percentage of women than men also reported attending religious services at least once a week and praying every day, according to the poll, which included the responses of 225 men and 263 women. The margin of sampling error is 4.4 percentage points.<\/p>\n
“It’s a nationwide phenomenon that women tend to be more spiritual than men,” said Monika McDermott, research director of the center.<\/p>\n
This “religion gender gap” has baffled experts for decades.<\/p>\n