Do Inegalitarian Views about Gender Explain Muslim Women's Low Employment Levels?

• In Event: 173 - Regular Session. Sociology and the Arab World

Abstract

Past research from around the world finds that Muslim women have unusually low rates of employment. Using worldwide data from the World Values Survey, we estimate models predicting women’s employment. In models that include country fixed effects and other individual-level demographic and family controls, we show that Muslim women have lower employment than women of most other faiths. We then test a prevailing view: that Muslim women’s employment is deterred because Islam discourages gender egalitarian and other secular values. We find that, although Muslims have slightly more conservative values regarding gender than most other groups, there is no evidence that values explain Muslim women’s low employment rates. While the explanation for the relatively low employment of Muslim women remains elusive, our analysis casts serious doubt on claims that Islam is distinctive in its conservative gender ideology, and that this is what is holding Muslim women back around the world.

Authors

• Eman Abdelhadi, New York University

• Paula England, New York University