Determinants of Muslim Attitudes toward Gender Equality

• In Event: Insights from Original Survey Research in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

This paper uses data from 54 surveys conducted in 17 Middle Eastern and North African countries to test hypotheses about determinants of attitudes toward gender equality. Independent variables include personal religiosity, views about political Islam, inter-personal trust, political trust, and individual economic circumstance. Hypotheses are tested separately for respondents grouped by sex, educational level, and age cohort, taken together. Key findings are that while support for political Islam is consistently inversely related to support for gender equality, personal religiosity is not associated with views about gender equality for most respondent categories; that while level of political trust is rarely associated with views about gender equality, lower inter-personal trust is associated with greater support for gender equality among men, regardless of age and educational level, but very rarely among women; and that more favorable economic circumstance is related to greater support for gender equality only among older individuals.

Author

• Mark Tessler, University of Michigan