Men, Muslims, and Attitudes toward Gender Inequality

Bibliographic Data

ID6212408
AuthorsDanielle N Lussier (0000-0002-6732-1322, Grinnell College, corresponding author), M Steven Fish (0000-0001-9992-9984, University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume9
Issue1
Pages29-60
Publication date2016-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics and Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1755-0491 • E-ISSN: 1755-0483
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1755048315000826
OpenAlexW2264632877
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited42

Gender-based inequality is often regarded as a salient characteristic of Muslim societies, yet few works have systematically compared the status of women in Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Fish (2011) finds a gender gap in structural indicators of inequality in Muslim-majority countries that cannot be explained by levels of economic development, raising questions about whether attitudes favoring inequality are more prominent among Muslims. We investigate the impact of structural-situational factors and religious identification on attitudes toward gender-based inequality using hierarchical-level models. We find that: (1) Muslim self-identification and the size of a country's Muslim population predict attitudes supportive of inequality; (2) an individual's gender has a stronger effect on attitudes than does religious identification; and (3) measures of structural inequality also shape attitudes. The effects of these variables remain strong when we consider other contextual elements, such as gross domestic product per capita, education, age, location in the Middle East, and fuels dependence

Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Gender equality · Gender inequality · Gross domestic product · Identification (biology · Inequality · Per capita · Population · Situational ethics · Sociology · Structural inequality · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Demography · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Mathematics · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Social Psychology