The gendering of heterosexual religious young adults’ imagined futures

Page, Sarah-Jane; Yip, Andrew Kam-Tuck

Abstract

This article draws from a mixed-method project that examined religion, youth, gender, and sexuality among young women and men aged between 18 and 25, from seven religious traditions, and living in the UK. It charts how unmarried heterosexuals imagined their future lives in relation to marriage and parenthood. We deploy conceptual literature on the ‘imagined future’, which is under-used in the sociology of religion, to explore what difference, if any, religious belonging makes to the futures they imagined. We assert that religion is part of the participants’ cultural tapestry which broadly informed their values and actions. In other words, religion, as a component of culture, provides a ‘tool kit’ which they utilised in the imagining of futures that they deemed meaningful. This article contributes significantly to literature on gender and religious cultures, and imagined future, highlighting the complex and interweaving role religion played in how young adults imagined their future gendered lives.

Citation

Page, S., & Yip, A. K. (2019). The gendering of heterosexual religious young adults’ imagined futures. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 34(2), 253-273. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2019.1621542

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 8, 2019
• Publication Date: Jul 8, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 11, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 31, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Contemporary Religion
• Print ISSN: 1353-7903
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9419
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 253-273
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2019.1621542
• Keywords: Gender equality, gender roles, marriage, parenthood, childcare, religion, imagined future
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1466022
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2019.1621542
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=cjcr20; Received: 2016-09-15; Accepted: 2017-02-10; Published: 2019-07-08