Disbanded Brothers – Has a ‘Feminised’ Church Alienated Men in the UK?

APPENDIX 1
SURVEY AIMS AND METHODOLOGY
Introduction
As an integral part of this dissertation, I conducted a survey of UK Christians. This took the
form of an online questionnaire consisting of 21 questions (plus 5 profiling questions) and an
opportunity for participants to give any further comments. The survey ran for two months
from mid-February to mid-April 2007. A copy of the survey, which was conducted as the
‘Attitudes to Church – 2007’ survey, is included in Appendix 2 and a full set of results is in
Appendix 3.
Participant Profile
The survey was completed by 456 British Christians, whose profile was as follows:
Gender Region Denomination
Female 48.90% England 94.96% Anglican 41.89%
Male 51.10% Scotland 1.32% Baptist 26.32%
Wales 3.73% Brethren 1.75%
Independent/New 10.09%
Methodist 7.46%
Average age: 42.8 years Pentecostal 4.61%
Roman Catholic 0.88%
URC 1.10%
Other 5.92%
Survey Aims
The aims of the survey were as follows:
• To explore whether men and women use different language to relate to God and to
describe their relationship with Him;
• To explore how male and female Christians perceive the Church’s response to gender;
• To gauge the significance of the relationship between gender and the Church;
• To canvass opinion on why men attend Church in significantly fewer numbers than
women.
Survey Methodology
It was necessary to develop a survey that was not too transparently about gender issues, at
least initially, since responses would be conditioned by the knowledge that the research was
testing for genderal differences. Instead, the survey began with demographic profiling and
then tested the language that people use of speak of their Christian faith and how they relate
to God. Only as the survey progressed would it become apparent that most questions
centred on genderal aspects of the Church.
Approximately 90% of those starting the online survey completed it, and all questions (apart
from the closing comment option) were mandatory. Only complete results were included.
Those (11) participants identifying their region as “non-UK” were excluded from the results,
since the survey was explicitly concerned with the Church in the UK (there were no results
received from Northern Ireland). The survey does not claim to be representative of all
Christians in the UK, and the results have not been weighted to reflect denominational or
other differences. However, this relatively large sample is intended to be indicative of
general opinions held by churchgoers in the UK. The survey was specifically designed to
identify differences in views held by men and women, irrespective of any denominational,
regional or age differences.
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