Religious Freedom in the City Pool: Gender Segregation, Partisanship, and the Construction of Symbolic Boundaries

Low political support for religious minority groups in the United States is often explained as a matter of social distance or unfamiliarity between religious traditions. Observable differences between beliefs and behaviors of religious minority groups and the cultural mainstream are thought to demar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Politics and religion 2022-12, Vol.15 (4), p.700-721
Main Authors: Argyle, Lisa P., Terman, Rochelle, Nelimarkka, Matti
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Boundaries
Christianity
Cultural differences
Cultural groups
Denominations
Ethnocentrism
Experiments
Freedom of religion
Gender
Gender segregation
Hostility
Immigrants
Jewish people
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority groups
Muslims
Nuns
Partisanship
Perceptions
Public opinion
Public policy
Religion
Religion & politics
Religious behavior
Religious beliefs
Religious minorities
Religious traditions
Segregation
Social distance
Social identity
Threats
Traditions
Values
Women
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Summary:Low political support for religious minority groups in the United States is often explained as a matter of social distance or unfamiliarity between religious traditions. Observable differences between beliefs and behaviors of religious minority groups and the cultural mainstream are thought to demarcate group boundaries. However, little scholarship has examined why some practices become symbolic boundaries that reduce support for religious accommodation in public policy, while nearly identical practices are tolerated. We hypothesize that politics is an important component of the process by which some religious practices are transformed into demarcations between “us” and “them.” We conduct an original survey experiment in which people are exposed to an identical policy demand—women-only swim times at a local public pool—attributed to three different religious denominations (Muslim, Jewish, and Pentecostal). We find that people are less supportive of women-only swim times when the requesting religion is not a part of their partisan coalition.
ISSN:1755-0483
1755-0491
DOI:10.1017/S1755048322000086