Even though I come from a mostly Baptist upbringing, that taught that the man should be the head of the house, and the spiritual leader, my mom was in charge--of both. She even stopped going to a church when the preacher told her that she shouldn't be having Bible studies with other women in her own home. She was also upset when he said that he would not allow an interracial couple (he black, she white) become members of the church as it went "against god's will."

My dad went to whichever church my mom wanted to go. He would have followed her to any religion. He worked six days a week and just went with the flow. But, he is steadfast in his beliefs--thinking they are his own, when I know they are based on what my mom believed and passed on to the rest of us.

When I let go of my beliefs it was traumatic in a lot of ways; accepting that my mom was wrong about all of it was heart-wrenching, to say the least.

• I should note that the above mentioned preacher was later found out to have been molesting his own daughter.

As far as I know, I can not produce the research although I do think it exist, males and females respond differently in general to religion.

Females tend to be more religious and males less so.
Males tend to be more agressive about premoting their beliefs outside the home while Females tend to exercise their beliefs more in the home and more ardently so in the home.
It can be said that males do tend to reject religions, this is supported by statistics.

These of course are generalizations. It really depends on what is meant by "push".

I don’t know about Catholics but my experience is that it is men who are more likely to push religion. On the other hand, women are more likely to be religious, and seem more sincere in their practice.

Men can very stridently "push religion" on their children. Pretty much cudgel them with it.

They don't

It's just you

From what I’ve noticed.. women seem to feel involving their children with the dominant power group is a way of ‘protecting them.’

I think when it comes to religious families, men are dominating in family decisions. Women usually toe what the man decides at home. Men take women and families to church and children are brain washed to follow the religious teachings since birth. I am sure they are well meaning and honestly believe that they following the righteous path. Since women are closer to children for most hours of the day, it would appear that mothers are bigger influencers to children.