Liturgical life in today's Catholic Church in the Western world is dominated by women, although the priesthood remains reserved for men. Conservative critics speak of a feminization of worship life, which is said to be a consequence of the liturgical reform implemented after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. But the liturgical movement centred in German-speaking Central Europe which was the source of inspiration for this reform went in a completely different direction. This movement started as a liturgical public education project within the Benedictine order but developed after the First World War into a liturgical reform movement. The movement gained traction in academic youth circles, and although women also joined. it was primarily a men's movement with the cape directed against the custom applied especially by women to perform private devotions in connection with the service. Its purpose was to contribute to a more active lay participation in worship life. The liturgical activism became a way of engaging the male youth in church life but also a means of awakening vocations to the priesthood. A similar development emerged within the Protestant High Church, where the Catholic-inspired ritualization of the worship life came to function as a bulwark against the demand for female priests. In my planned contribution, I will analyse this process of liturgical transformation. Using examples from the Catholic diaspora Catholicism of the Nordic countries and the Swedish Protestant High Church, I will show which expressions it could take and how this reflects the relationship between religion and gender.