“When Jobs Are Scarce”: The Attitudes to Female Labor in Islamic and Arab Cultures in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This study examines the influence of Islam on attitudes toward female labor force participation as reflected in responses to the World Values Survey (WVS) question: “When jobs are scarce, should men have more right to a job than women?”. The authors expect that respondents in Islamic (Muslim-majority) countries will have more positive attitudes toward this statement than respondents in non-Islamic countries. They test the hypothesis that the higher the percentage of Muslims in a given country, the more likely respondents are to agree with this statement. The correlation is in the predicted direction, statistically significant and quite strong. Meanwhile, tests show that respondents in Arab countries show particularly strong support for this statement (significantly stronger than in non-Arab Muslim-majority countries). Based on this, the authors try to discuss possible determinants of such attitudes. Particular support is observed in Arab countries and those non-Arab countries that have experienced a strong Arab influence. These countries can be identified with the Umayyad Caliphate in the past and may have been particularly influenced by non-Islamic elements of Arab culture that are not directly related to Islam.