Abstract:
This thesis examines the lived experiences of young adult women raised in the Baptist denomination in the United States. The objective was to discover the mechanisms behind the development of their religious ideology and how it connects to their gender ideology. Fifteen young women completed semi-structured in-depth virtual interviews over the course of five months. The key finding is an understanding of how the women came to develop a modern spiritual gender ideology through their own interrogation of the gender ideology they were socialized to hold as children. These results can be used to empower young women raised in conservative religions to remain spiritual while affording space to question traditional gender norms. Religious organizations can also use these findings as a way to better understand younger followers in order to better integrate them into the organization going forward.
