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Evidence that Muslims support patriarchal values more than non-Muslims is abundant but the nature of this evidence is contested. The ‘cultural’ interpretation suggests that patriarchal values are an inherent element of Muslim identity. The ‘structural’ interpretation holds that patriarchal values reside in structural characteristics and have little...
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... Secondly, our work adds to the literature that studies gender differences in time use Li 2023 and the effect of exogenous events and institutions on it (Gálvez-Muñoz et al. 2011;Gimenez-Nadal and Molina 2013;de Bruin and Liu 2020;Garg et al. 2020). Lastly, we contribute to the literature studying the connections between gender disparities and Islamic religious institutions (Moghissi 1999;Charrad 2001;Jejeebhoy and Sathar 2001;Moghadam 2004a, b;Offenhauer 2005;Alexander and Welzel 2011;Fish 2011;Ross 2012). ...
In this paper, we examine how religious mandates of the holy month of Ramadan affect the gendered distribution of time use within Muslim households in India. Using rich data on time use from a nationally representative time use survey and employing a difference-in-differences methodology, we test if Ramadan accentuates gender differences in time use. We find that, contrary to popular belief, Ramadan moderates the gender disparities in intra-household time use for Muslim households. The moderating influence is stronger in districts with a higher Muslim proportion. We find that the reduction in gender differences is due to declines in gender-specific time use in employment, learning activities, domestic work and self-care. Reduction in domestic work time for women, especially food preparation time, is more pronounced in districts with a high Muslim proportion, suggesting ‘communalisation of domestic work’ due to Ramadan.
... Some scholars argue that education affects certain gender-related attitudes differently for females and males (Kane, 1995;Shu, 2004). While some studies have found that the effect of education on certain gender-related attitudes is more pronounced for women than for men in different countries (Alexander and Welzel, 2011;Du et al., 2021;Kane, 1995;Shu, 2004), we argue that education might influence the gender attitudes of males more strongly than those of females. As females are, on average, more egalitarian than males (Bolzendahl and Myers, 2004;Davis and Greenstein, 2009;Fan and Marini, 2000;Idema and Phalet, 2007;Röder and Mühlau, 2014), education will possibly catalyze males' initial less egalitarian gender attitudes. ...
It is well-known that exposure to education is related to egalitarian gender attitudes. Yet, previous studies did not sufficiently take the temporal variation of this relationship into account, especially regarding ethno-religious minority and majority adolescents in Europe. Adolescence represents crucial years for attitude development. We analyze the association between secondary education and gender attitudes of female and male youth belonging to the majority, Muslim, and non-Muslim minority in Germany by employing the CILS4EU-DE panel data with more than 3200 adolescents. Obtaining a secondary school degree is associated with more egalitarian gender attitudes in general. However, different patterns emerge for the various ethno-religious groups and for females and males. Particularly, the effect of secondary education in general is stronger for boys than girls, and upper secondary education is stronger for Muslim minorities than for majority youth. Thus, attitudes develop during adolescence, and education can lead to more egalitarian gender attitudes among some groups but not all equally.
... Self-identified Muslims and Muslim societies who have more education are less likely to hold patriarchal values. As a result, Muslims, both as individuals and as members of societies, are impacted by forces that challenge patriarchal norms (Alexander & Welzel, 2011). This includes the active involvement of non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, advocates for women's rights, and professionals in social work who play important roles in promoting gender equality and challenging traditional gender roles within Muslim communities. ...
Female education is a controversial topic. Even though government authorities take actions to prevent gender-related issues in education, gender issues arise because of patriarchal communities’ beliefs of women’s roles in society. Women in Azerbaijan usually have no choice in choosing their life path due to society’s traditional sexism. This usually shows itself in the education field, where we can observe the humiliation of female education rights because it is the first and one of the foremost phases for women to overcome the fake barriers created by society’s unfair beliefs. The research study was designed and coordinated by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Azerbaijan, State Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Family, Women and Children’s Affairs International organization “Promundo,” International Center for Social Research (ICSR) in collaboration with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the Azerbaijan State Committee. The data used in this research was examined in terms of female education rights violations. The authors pointed out three main aspects that create the pretext for education rights violation: traditional sexism, religious issues, and gender-related imbalance in career choices. The outcome of the research shed light on the violation of females’ education rights in patriarchal communities by depicting the situation in Azerbaijan society.
... respondent gender, finding support for the well-established gender affinity effect (Benstead et al., 2015;Kao & Benstead, 2021;Sanbonmatsu, 2002;Schwarz & Coppock, 2022). However, we may expect that youth (Alexander & Welzel, 2011), the more highly educated, or more secular voters (Benstead et al., 2015) are more likely to express support for female candidates. Given our sample overrepresents educated youth, it is particularly important to explore how these demographic subgroups respond to male versus female candidates. ...
... These findings have significant implications for the growing body of literature on female electability (Blackman & Jackson, 2021;Schwarz & Coppock, 2022) and changes in citizens' attitudes toward gender equality (Alexander & Welzel, 2011;Shteiwi, 2015). Our study calls on scholars to expand the application of gender congruity theory in the MENA and worldwide by considering what citizens look for in leaders (i.e., leader roles). ...
Despite growing evidence of pro-female bias in the electorate elsewhere, conventional wisdom holds that voters in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) prefer male candidates, presumably due to sexism. We test this conventional wisdom using a conjoint experiment administered to over 30,000 respondents in six MENA countries. We find both male and female respondents are more likely to express support for female candidates and see them as more capable than their male counterparts, even in stereotypically male domains. We argue the increasing demand for political outsiders explains these results. In highlighting the importance of such changes, our study expands the application of gender congruity theory in the MENA and beyond by offering evidence that both changes in gender stereotypes (i.e., gender roles) and in what citizens desire in leaders (i.e., leader roles) reduce anti-female bias at the polls.
... In this paper, we utilize these polarized public sentiments and study whether they shape public support for gender equality. However, rather than focusing on differences between countries, as comparative studies tend to do (Alexander & Welzel, 2011;Price, 2015), we focus on differences in polarized sentiments between regions within countries. Although such subnational differences have received relatively little attention, they might actually be of greater importance than national differences, because they represent smaller-scale locales that consequently might have stronger impacts on the lived experiences of their inhabitants (Alexander & Parhizkari, 2018;Longwe & Smits, 2013;Spierings et al., 2010). ...
This study focuses on links between religion, political polarization, and support for gender equality, empirically studying Turkey, Indonesia, Tunisia, and Malaysia. These four Muslim-majority electoral democracies include different degrees of polarization between secularists and Islamists, whereby Islamists vilify secularists' supposed Western ideals as gender equality. We explore whether regional polarization between Islamist and secularist sentiments impacts common peoples' gender equality attitudes and the link between their religious and political positions and their gender equality support. Applying multilevel analyses to World Values Survey data, we find that the more strongly and politically religious and more right-wing people tend to support gender equality less, while regional polarization does not significantly affect gender equality in general. However, polarization does fuel support for women's political leadership (not educational and economic equality) among men, which might echo the strategical deployment of female candidates in polarized regions. Clearly, gender equality's dimensions have their own dynamics.
... Kyoore and Sulemana (2019) found that Muslim affiliation reduced the likelihood of supporting gender equality in Africa. Relying on global data obtained from the WVS, Alexander and Welzel (2011) found stronger support for patriarchal values among Muslims than non-Muslims. Lussier and Fish (2016), who also relied on the WVS global data, found that Muslim affiliation and the proportion of a country's Muslim population were both negatively correlated with support for gender equality. ...
Using novel survey data collected from the states of Kaduna and Edo in Nigeria’s Northern and Southern Regions respectively, this study examined the correlates of gender egalitarian attitudes with a particular focus on gender, educational attainment, religious affiliation, and the region where the respondents resided. The regression results showed that educational attainment and being female positively correlated with support for gender equality in the two states. Muslims self-identification negatively correlated with support for gender equality in Kaduna; however, in the case of Edo, it was statistically insignificant. Moreover, residing in Northern Nigeria negatively correlated with support for gender equality. When I broke down the data based on gender (males and females) and religious affiliation (Muslims and Christians) and compared the subgroups across the two states, the descriptive results showed that Muslims in Edo were more supportive of gender equality than both Christians and Muslims in Kaduna. Males in Edo were also more supportive of gender equality than both females and males in Kaduna. This suggests that it would be misleading to lump respondents from both states into the same category based on gender or religious affiliation because they differ considerably.
... Religion is an important factor in adherence to cultural values. Alexander and Welzel (2011) studied the extent to which Muslims and non-Muslims in a predominantly Muslim and non-Muslim society support patriarchal values. They found that Muslim identification and Muslim social dominance as well as high individual religiousness increase the average level of patriarchal values. ...
... The results of a one-way ANOVA showed that male students tended to have greater adherence than female ones. However, gender predicted differences only in adherence to values related to family relationships; male students more strongly followed family interdependence, family stability, and patriarchal believes that is confirms Muslim men tend to share patriarchal values (Alexander & Welzel, 2011), but contradict a theoretical assumption that women are more focused on providing care and maintaining relationships than men (Dobrin, 1989). Perhaps this is due to the pressure of sons' responsibility in Kazakh culture (Koenig et al., 2016). ...
... The results illustrated the higher the students' religiosity, the higher their cultural values adherence. However, in contrast to a previous study (Alexander & Welzel, 2011), a significant effect of the degree of religiosity on following patriarchal values was not found. It is conceivable that these findings may be related to the fact that the predominance of the proportion of Muslims has such a high influence that patriarchal values become common to most people living in society (Alexander & Welzel, 2011) in the context of the revival of Islamic values in Kazakhstan (Malik, 2019). ...
... Seguino (2011) proposed that religiosity, not one particular religion, is associated with negative views on gender equality. Alexander and Welzel (2011), in contrast, found that among people with equally high levels of religiosity, Muslims hold more patriarchal views than non-Muslims and that context is also important: living in a majority-Muslim society increases the patriarchal views of Muslims even more than individual identification as Muslim across countries, with non-Muslims in such societies also holding more patriarchal views than non-Muslims living in non-Muslim societies. Lussier and Fish (2016, 55) agreed that both selfidentification as Muslim and living in a majority-Muslim society increase the likelihood an individual will oppose gender equality, but also found that gender has a stronger impact than religious identification: "Non-Muslim men have a greater likelihood of favoring gender inequality than do Muslim women, and the strength of sex as an independent predictor of attitudes is robust even when controlling for religion." ...
We examine cultural and ideological barriers to gender equality in a young democracy, Indonesia, where women’s political representation has increased slowly since democratization, but where survey results point to declining support for women’s political leadership. In both country and comparative literature, the effect of ideological factors—including religion—on voter support for women candidates is contested. Using results of a nationally representative survey, we group respondents according to a “political patriarchy” index. We find that being a Muslim is a strong predictor of holding patriarchal attitudes; university education is associated with gender-egalitarian views. Patriarchal views, in turn, are associated with opposition to increasing Indonesia’s gender quota and with lower levels of self-reported voting for female candidates. Our findings suggest that patriarchal attitudes drive both policy preferences and voter behavior. We conclude that Indonesia’s recent conservative Islamic turn likely underpins widespread—and increasing—opposition to gender equality in politics.
... As Indonesia and Pakistan have a high number of Muslim populations, this study tried to see how Indonesian students responded to the lives of Muslim women in Pakistan through literature. The popular cultural interpretation of Islam suggests that patriarchal values are inseparable from Islamic teachings, to a point where it becomes the inherent identity of Islamic identity (Alexander & Welzel, 2010). Part of the study asked the readers to respond whether the interpretation was true or not as found in the short story. ...
The teaching of English literary works in a foreign language context remains a textual-oriented activity. Students were required to comprehend the linguistic and thematic features of the texts. However, more often than not, students were not aware of the real sociocultural, economic, and political conditions from which the text was based because they focused more on understanding the textual contents of the text. In Indonesia where English was still considered as a foreign language, the phenomenon was common. This paper examined the results of a contextual approach given to students when discussing a literary text. The contextual approach was implemented in three stages: pre-reading activities; reading, discussing, and analyzing the text by paying attention to its linguistic features and plot; and connecting the text with real-life situations. The study involved 31 English Literature students at Universitas Negeri Semarang from the third semester. The text discussed was a short story titled “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders” which contained feminist issues. The researchers also used questionnaires and observed the students’ activities during the three stages to enrich the data. The results revealed that the approach helped the students to understand feminist issues more comprehensively. They were able to relate the circumstances depicted in the story with the real sociocultural, economic, and political conditions of the society where the story was based. The results also suggested that the method was effective in developing the students’ literacy skills.
... Thus, religion, as a cultural aspect, is used to advance patriarchal domination over women. Ali (2021) states that according to World Health Organization (WHO) 2013 report, violence against women is a global problem that still goes on everywhere. These acts of violence include violence by an intimate partner or stranger, physical abuse, rape, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, honour killing, and trafficking. ...
This paper examines how patriarchy is advanced through religion which in the context of this study refers to the way people connect with a supreme being and the way especially different genders relate with each other. Patriarchy is entrenched in culture and is one of the cultural aspects through which women, financially and socially weak men and children are subjected to domination by the hegemonic male. The study interrogates how those subjected to patriarchal domination are defying the dominating facets of religion in order to deconstruct the oppressive patriarchal structure. The study makes reference to Nuruddin Farah’s Hiding in Plain Sight (2014). Since the source of the conflict in this primary text takes place in Somalia where the majority of people are Muslims, the paper will specifically focus on the way hegemony is advanced through the Islamic religion. The study makes the assumption that defying the dictates of the Islamic religion doctrines is equivalent to challenging the hegemony that is exercised through Islam. Religion as a cultural aspect is inculcated in the minds of the characters from a tender age and thus, they grow up believing in and practising the doctrines of the religion. The study concludes that the desire to liberate themselves makes those subjected to patriarchal domination to challenge the existing patriarchal constructs domiciled in the religion. The arguments in the study are based on psycho-feminist criticism. Psycho-feminist ideology is employed by characters who wish to un-learn the religious doctrines inculcated in them and challenge patriarchal structures within the religion in order to liberate themselves
