IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v129y2016i2d10.1007_s11205-015-1147-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Religion and Gender Equality Worldwide: A Country-Level Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Landon Schnabel

    (Indiana University)

Abstract

Does religion help or hinder gender equality worldwide? Are some major world religions more conducive to equality than others? This study answers these questions using country-level data assembled from multiple sources. Much of the research on religion and gender has focused on the relationship between individual religious belief and practice and gender attitudes. This study, alternatively, compares the macro effects of the proportion of religious adherents in a country on two indicators of material gender equality: the United Nations Gender Inequality Index and the Social Watch Gender Equity Index. Comparing the world’s four largest religious groups reveals that the largest distinction is not between any of the three largest faiths—Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism—but between the religious and the non-religious. The more non-religious people in a country, the more gender equal that country tends to be. This finding holds when accounting for human development and other country-level factors, as well as in instrumental variable analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Landon Schnabel, 2016. "Religion and Gender Equality Worldwide: A Country-Level Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 893-907, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:129:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-015-1147-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-015-1147-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-015-1147-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-015-1147-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Noland, Marcus, 2005. "Religion and economic performance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1215-1232, August.
    2. Seguino, Stephanie, 2011. "Help or Hindrance? Religion's Impact on Gender Inequality in Attitudes and Outcomes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1308-1321, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kim, Seh Young, 2022. "Analyzing the impacts of informal institutional factors affecting gender inequality: Evidence from 43 countries," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    2. Niclas Berggren & Martin Ljunge, 2021. "Good Faith and Bad Health: Self-Assessed Religiosity and Self-Assessed Health of Women and Men in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 323-344, January.
    3. Basedau, Matthias & Gobien, Simone & Prediger, Sebastian, 2017. "The Ambivalent Role of Religion for Sustainable Development: A Review of the Empirical Evidence," GIGA Working Papers 297, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    4. Kimitaka Nishitani & Akira Kawaguchi, 2022. "Mitigating Gender Inequality in the Workplace: Toward Sustainable Development Through Institutional Changes," Discussion Paper Series DP2022-07, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised May 2022.
    5. Laurie Fields DeRose, 2021. "Gender Equity, Religion, and Fertility in Europe and North America," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(1), pages 41-55, March.
    6. Carter, David A. & Shank, Corey A., 2023. "Do religiosity and political beliefs affect female representation and firm performance?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    7. Matthias Basedau & Simone Gobien & Sebastian Prediger, 2018. "The Multidimensional Effects Of Religion On Socioeconomic Development: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1106-1133, September.
    8. Walter Wymer, 2023. "Social marketing’s relevance in helping the United Nations attain its SDGs," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 20(3), pages 529-541, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Basedau & Simone Gobien & Sebastian Prediger, 2018. "The Multidimensional Effects Of Religion On Socioeconomic Development: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1106-1133, September.
    2. Schnabel, Landon, 2017. "Religion and Gender Equality Worldwide: A Country-Level Analysis," SocArXiv fzcwp, Center for Open Science.
    3. Osei-Tutu, Francis & Weill, Laurent, 2023. "Individualism reduces borrower discouragement," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 370-385.
    4. Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "Policies against human trafficking: the role of religion and political institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 353-386, November.
    5. Rougier, Eric, 2016. "“Fire in Cairo”: Authoritarian–Redistributive Social Contracts, Structural Change, and the Arab Spring," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 148-171.
    6. Bozzano, Monica, 2017. "On the historical roots of women's empowerment across Italian provinces: religion or family culture?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-46.
    7. Chaudhary, Latika & Rubin, Jared, 2016. "Religious identity and the provision of public goods: Evidence from the Indian Princely States," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 461-483.
    8. Docquier, Frédéric & Tansel, Aysit & Turati, Riccardo, 2017. "Do emigrants self-select along cultural traits? Evidence from the MENA countries," MPRA Paper 82778, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Barbara Bompani, 2019. "Religion and development: Tracing the trajectories of an evolving sub-discipline," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 19(3), pages 171-185, July.
    10. Fuchs, Michaela & Rossen, Anja & Weyh, Antje & Wydra-Somaggio, Gabriele, 2019. "Why do women earn more than men in some regions? : Explaining regional differences in the gender pay gap in Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201911, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Marisa Bucheli & Máximo Rossi, 2016. "Attitudes towards Intimate Partner Violence against Women in Latin America," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0116, Department of Economics - dECON.
    12. Seguino, Stephanie, 2011. "Help or Hindrance? Religion's Impact on Gender Inequality in Attitudes and Outcomes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1308-1321, August.
    13. Bhaumik, Sumon Kumar & Chakrabarty, Manisha, 2009. "Is education the panacea for economic deprivation of Muslims?: Evidence from wage earners in India, 1987-2005," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 137-149, March.
    14. Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2008. "Religion, politics, and development: Lessons from the lands of Islam," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-351, November.
    15. Klasen, Stephan & Pieters, Janneke, 2012. "Push or Pull? Drivers of Female Labor Force Participation during India's Economic Boom," IZA Discussion Papers 6395, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Sacit Hadi Akdede & Hakan Hotunluoðlu, 2008. "Economic Development and Religiosity: An Investigation of Turkish Cities," Papers of the Annual IUE-SUNY Cortland Conference in Economics, in: Oguz Esen & Ayla Ogus (ed.), Proceedings of the Conference on Emerging Economic Issues in a Globalizing World, pages 261-271, Izmir University of Economics.
    17. Nurrachmi, Rininta, 2016. "Religion and Economic Performance," MPRA Paper 85582, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Mar 2018.
    18. George Petrakos & Panagiotis Artelaris, 2009. "European Regional Convergence Revisited: A Weighted Least Squares Approach," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 314-331, June.
    19. Harka, Elona & Nunziata, Luca & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2021. "The Alabaster Ceiling: The Gender Legacy of the Papal States," IZA Discussion Papers 14719, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Clément, Matthieu & Levasseur, Pierre & Seetahul, Suneha & Piaser, Lucie, 2021. "Does inequality have a silver lining? Municipal income inequality and obesity in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:129:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-015-1147-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.