Does religion oppress women, or liberate them to live with deep meaning and purpose? A new study undertaken by Harvard University suggests the latter.

Author Margaret Atwood’s novel (and now TV series) The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian story set in the near future, when a kooky religious cult takes over much of the US.

In the story, women are marginalised and relegated to second class citizens, and many become enslaved. These female slaves — ‘Handmaids’ as they’re known — have little bodily autonomy, reduced to breeding machines for their wealthy masters.

And you don’t need to watch many episodes before the underlying narrative of The Handmaid’s Tale hits you in the face: religion oppresses women. [1]  

It’s a narrative that resonates deeply with many secular feminists today. From restricted abortion rights to patriarchy, religious women are considered to be worse off than their more enlightened secular sisters.

As such, many secular feminists have taken to wearing the red and white of Handmaids at pro-choice rallies. As author Rebecca McLaughlin points out: ‘It’s a story told in red and white: Christianity is [seen to be] bad for women’s rights’. [2]

What Harvard Medical School Knows That ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Does Not

And yet, a recent study from Harvard University challenges this narrative. Its conclusion will surprise many secular readers:

‘Compared with women who had never attended religious services, women who attended once or more per week had a five-fold lower risk of suicide.’

(Not quite the narrative from The Handmaid’s Tale.)

And a study like this couldn’t have come at a better time.

Mental Health and Women’s Wellbeing

Mental health across the Western world — including for women — is in crisis. According to Lifeline, around two women die each day in Australia from suicide.[3] Those women are daughters, sisters, mothers, wives. It’s a devastating tragedy on every level, as those touched by a loved one’s suicide can attest.

Many of these women might have been saved if they had received the right support. And according to Harvard University, churchgoing is a very effective form of support.

What the Harvard Study Shows

The study, entitled Association Between Religious Service Attendance and Lower Suicide Rates Among US Women, was run by the Harvard School of Public Health. It was a longitudinal (long term) study of around 90,000 women — so it was comprehensive. According to the study:

‘We… examine[d] the association between service attendance and suicide… adjusting for demographic covariates, lifestyle factors and medical history, depressive symptoms, and social integration measures.’

And their results are mind-blowing:

‘Compared with women who had never attended religious services, women who attended once or more per week had a five-fold lower risk of suicide; results were robust across various exclusions, methods of analysis, and in sensitivity analysis.’

But as the study points out, the results aren’t merely because of the social benefits of regular churchgoing:

Read the full article at canberradeclaration.org.au