Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-smskv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-06-14T11:50:28.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Men, Muslims, and Attitudes toward Gender Inequality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2016

Danielle N. Lussier  and
M. Steven Fish
Danielle N. Lussier*
Affiliation:
Grinnell College
M. Steven Fish*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Danielle N. Lussier, Grinnell College, 308 Carnegie Hall, Grinnell, IA 50112. E-mail: lussierd@grinnell.edu; or to: M. Steven Fish, University of California, Berkeley, Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, 210 Barrows Hall #1950, Berkeley, CA 94720-1950x. E-mail: sfish@berkeley.edu.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Danielle N. Lussier, Grinnell College, 308 Carnegie Hall, Grinnell, IA 50112. E-mail: lussierd@grinnell.edu; or to: M. Steven Fish, University of California, Berkeley, Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, 210 Barrows Hall #1950, Berkeley, CA 94720-1950x. E-mail: sfish@berkeley.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 29 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Abou El Fadl, Khaled. 2008. Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority, and Women. Oxford: Oneworld.Google Scholar
Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2000. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Afkhami, Mahnaz. 1995. Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Leila. 1993. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, Amy C., and Welzel, Christian. 2011. “Islam and Patriarchy: How Robust is Muslim Support for Patriarchal Values?” International Review of Sociology 21:249–276.Google Scholar
Ali, Kecia. 2006. Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence. Braintree, MA: Oneworld.Google Scholar
Association of Religious Data Archives. 2010. “Data Files.” thearda.com (Accessed on September 30, 2010).Google Scholar
Barlas, Asma. 2002. “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bolzendahl, Catherine I., and Myers, Daniel J.. 2004. “Feminist Attitudes and Support for Gender Equality: Opinion Change in Women and Men, 1974–1998.” Social Forces 83:759–789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouachrine, Ibtissam. 2014. Women and Islam: Myths, Apologies, and the Limits of Feminist Critique. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Brooks, Geraldine. 1995. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. New York, NY: Anchor.Google Scholar
Callaway, Barbara, and Creevey, Lucy. 1993. The Heritage of Islam: Women, Religion, and Politics in West Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Charrad, Mounira M. 2001. States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chaturvedi, Neilan S., and Montoya, Orlando. 2013. “Democracy, Oil, or Religion? Expanding Women's Rights in the Muslim World.” Politics and Religion 6: 596–617.Google Scholar
Cherif, Feryal M. 2010. “Culture, Rights, and Norms: Women's Rights and Reform in Muslim Countries.” Journal of Politics 72:1144–1160.Google Scholar
Cooke, Miriam. 2001. Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism through Literature. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Diehl, Claudia, Koenig, Matthias, and Ruckdeschel, Kerstin. 2009. “Religiosity and Gender Equality: Comparing Natives and Muslim Migrants in Germany.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32:278–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donno, Daniela, and Russett, Bruce. 2004. “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Female Empowerment: What Are the Linkages?” World Politics 56:582–607.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1997. The Division of Labor in Society. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1995. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1951. Suicide. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
El Guindi, Fadwa. 2003. Veil: Modesty, Privacy, Resistance. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Esposito, John L. 1998. “Introduction: Women in Islam and Muslim Societies.” In Islam, Gender, and Social Change, eds. Yvonne Yazbeck, Haddad, and Esposito, John L.,. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, ix-xxviii.Google Scholar
Fattah, Moataz A. 2006. Democratic Values in the Muslim World. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Marianne. 1994. Women and Religion. London: Pearson, 1994.Google Scholar
Fish, M. Steven. 2011. Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fish, M. Steven. 2002. “Islam and Authoritarianism.” World Politics 55:4–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedom House. 2011. “Freedom in the World All Scores Countries 1973–2011.” www.freedomhouse.org (Accessed on February 28, 2012).Google Scholar
Ganji, Akbar. 2008. The Road to Democracy in Iran. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ghodsee, Kristen. 2010. Muslim Lives and Eastern Europe: Gender, Ethnicity, and the Transformation of Islam in Postsocialist Bulgaria. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gole, Nilufer. 1997. The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hidayatullah, Aysha A. 2014. Feminist Edges of the Qur'an. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Norris, Pippa. 2003a. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Norris, Pippa. 2003b. “The True Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Policy 135:62–70.Google Scholar
Mernissi, Fatima. 1992. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam. New York, NY: Basic.Google Scholar
Mernissi, Fatima. 1987. Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. 1999. Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, Al-Sharmani, Mulki, and Rumminger, Jana, eds. 2015. Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in the Muslim Legal Tradition. London: Oneworld.Google Scholar
Moghadam, Valentine, ed. 2007. From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women's Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Nageeb, Salma Ahmed. 2004. New Spaces and Old Frontiers: Women, Social Space, and Islamization in Sudan. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa, and Inglehart, Ronald. 2004. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Offenhauer, Priscilla. 2005. “Women in Islamic Societies: A Selected Review of Social Scientific Literature.” http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/Women_Islamic_Societies.pdf (Accessed on June 1, 2015).Google Scholar
Peach, Lucinda Joy. 2001. Women and World Religions. London: Pearson.Google Scholar
Peshkova, Svetlana. 2014. Women, Islam, and Identity: Public Life and Private Spaces in Uzbekistan. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Rizzo, Helen, Abdel-Latif, Abdel-Hamid, and Meyer, Katherine. 2007. “The Relationship between Gender Equality and Democracy: A Comparison of Arab versus Non-Arab Muslim Societies.” Sociology 41:1151–1170.Google Scholar
Ross, Michael L. 2012. The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sapiro, Virginia. 2003. “Theorizing Gender in Political Psychology Research.” In Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, eds. Sears, David O., Huddy, Leonie, and Jervis, Robert. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 601–634.Google Scholar
Sharabi, Hisham. 1988. Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sharma, Arvind, ed. 1987. Women in World Religions. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Shiva, Balaghi, and Fatma Muge, Gocek, eds. 1995. Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Souaiaia, Ahmed E. 2008. Contesting Justice: Women, Islam, Law, and Society. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme. 2002. The Arab Human Development Report 2002: Creating Opportunities for Future Generations. New York, NY: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme. 1999. Human Development Report 1999. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme. 2001. Human Development Report 2001. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vanfossen, Beth Ensminger. 1977. “Sexual Stratification and Sex-Role Socialization.” Journal of Marriage and Family 39:563–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadud, Amina. 1999. Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
World Values Survey. 2009. “Wave 4 (1999–2005) and Wave 5 (2005–2008).” www.worldvaluessurvey.org (January 30, 2009).Google Scholar
World Values Survey. 2008. “Integrated Questionnaire.” www.worldvaluessurvey.org (Accessed on August 5, 2008).Google Scholar