Religion and Gender Equality Worldwide: A Country-Level Analysis

Schnabel, Landon

doi:10.1007/s11205-015-1147-7

Cited by 121 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…access to these family-planning methods, individual religious people use them when two conditions are met: the methods are 1) available and 2) seen as a culturally-acceptable option. In other words, basic access is a prerequisite, but norms and values matter as well, shaping fertility preferences and how people manage them, including reluctance or readiness to use effective methods for limiting fertility (Adamczyk 2008;McQuillan 2004;Ogland and Verona 2011;Schnabel 2016aSchnabel , 2016bSeguino 2011;Wilde and Danielsen 2015). 23 More secular cultures tend to have a general set of progressive societal norms about gender, family, and reproductionincluding gender egalitarianism, sex for pleasure rather than reproduction, and selfactualization-that lead to lower fertility preferences and greater readiness to use effective family planning methods (Adsera 2006;Buber-Ennser and Skirbekk 2016;Hayford and Morgan 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secularism (and related individualization) are highly relevant to both second demographic transition theory and developmental idealism. In addition to the importance of secular values and people choosing self-fulfilling lifestyles, gender equity-which is strongly predicted by nonreligious populations in instrumental variable analysis (Schnabel 2016b)-is an important factor in fertility variation (McDonald 2013;McQuillan 2004).…”

Section: Contextual Effects On Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gender, sexuality, and familism are key sites for the expression of religious beliefs and values (Edgell and Docka 2007), and secularism contributes to several factors negatively associated with fertility: material gender equity (Schnabel 2016b), egalitarian gender attitudes (Schnabel 2016a;Seguino 2011), sexuality and abortion attitudes and practices (Adamczyk 2008;Adamczyk and Hayes 2012), and secular values more generally (Norris and Inglehart 2011). Although gender equity theory suggests material gender equity may be the most important intermediary factor (McDonald 2013), McQuillan (2004 argued that values related to gender and sexuality are key reasons why religion influences fertility (also see Hayford and Morgan 2008).…”

Section: Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 The data provide more options in the WVS analyses and I measure secularism in four ways: proportion religiously unaffiliated, proportion atheist, aggregate mean religious salience (religious salience is measured from religion is very important in life=1 to religion is not at all important=4), and aggregate religious 4 See Adamczyk and Hayes (2012) and Schnabel (2016b) for similar operationalizations of secular populations. The World Christian Database estimates-which the ARDA national profiles use-of proportion secular are consistently conservative across countries (Hsu et al 2008).…”

Section: Key Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Secularism and Fertility Worldwide

Schnabel¹

2016

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This study hypothesizes a link between societal secularism and fertility. Using country-level data from multiple sources (N=181) and multilevel data from 55 countries in the World Values Survey (N=78,639), I document a strong negative relationship between societal secularism and both country-level fertility rates and individual-level fertility behavior. Secularism, even in small amounts, is associated with population stagnation or even decline, whereas highly religious countries have higher fertility rates that promote population growth. This country-level pattern is driven by more than aggregate lower fertility of individual nonreligious people. In fact, secularism is more closely linked to religious than nonreligious people's fertility behavior and appears to be a function of different cultural values related to gender and reproduction in more secular societies. Beyond its importance for the religious composition of the world population, the societal-level association between secularism and fertility is relevant to key fertility theories and may help account, in part, for below-replacement fertility. Rather than religious people becoming a smaller proportion of the world population, demographers have projected that because the nonreligious have fewer children they will make up a smaller proportion of the world population over time (Hackett et al. 2015;Kaufmann 2010;Skirbekk, Kaufmann, and Goujon 2010;Stonawski et al. 2015). This literature improves on secularization theory by highlighting how individual-level secularity limits fertility behavior and thus constrains secularization, but has thus far neglected potential impacts of societal-level secularity despite secularism being more than just an individual attribute. Culture is transmitted, and religious beliefs and preferences acquired, both vertically (i.e., within families) and 1 "Religious" and "nonreligious" can be defined in many ways. Past research has often conceptualized secularism as the inverse of absence of religion, and work on religion and fertility in particularly has frequently focused on binary measures that categorize people as religious or not. In order to consider varieties of secularism, I examine multiple religion/non-religion measures, some of which are binary and some gradational, and aggregations of these items.Secularism and Fertility Worldwide 2 horizontally (i.e., peer-to-peer within the wider culture) Verdier 2000, 2011).Research on religion and fertility has highlighted how the lower fertility of secular individuals limits vertical transmission of secularism, has thus far largely neglected potential demographic limits to horizontal transmission of secularism. The key unanswered question is whether a country-level relationship exists between secularism and fertility net of individual-level religion, which would further constrain secularization-due to fewer children being socialized in more secular contexts-and could contribute to below-replacement fertility.To examine the country-level relationship between secularism and f...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contextual Effects On Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Key Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Secularism and Fertility Worldwide

Schnabel¹

2016

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“…In another gender paradox, religion tends to be mendominated and yet women-populated . Historic religious figures and current religious leaders are predominantly men, and religion often promotes patriarchal beliefs and gender inequality (Edgell 2006;Edgell and Docka 2007;Schnabel 2016a).Nevertheless, women being more religious than men is one of the most consistent findings in the social sciences (Hoffmann 2009). Although the gender gap in religion is frequently noted, its political repercussions are largely ignored (but see Rinehart and Perkins 1989).…”

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confidence: 99%

Does Religion Suppress Gender Differences in Values? A Cross-National Examination

Schnabel¹

2018

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Women are typically more liberal than men. But on some issues related to "traditional moral values"-including sexuality and the beginning and end of life-women are just as if not more conservative than men. This study examines the role of religion in complicating the relationship between gender and values cross-nationally, with particular attention to variation across religious groups and contexts. Using data from a diverse set of 56 countries in the World Values Survey (N=85,181), I find that religiousness suppresses what would otherwise be larger and more consistent gender differences in values among Christians. Among most other groups, including Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and Muslims in non-Muslim contexts, religiousness does not greatly alter gender differences in values. However, among Muslims in Muslim-majority contexts-where men tend to be more religious than women-religiousness amplifies what would otherwise be smaller gender differences in values. Accordingly, gender differences in values tend to be larger among Muslims than Christians. I conclude that religions are complex and powerful social structures with heterogeneous social consequences. Keywords Gender Differences in Values 2Women tend to be more liberal than men. In many contexts, women are more likely to claim liberal identities, espouse egalitarian values, and vote for progressive politicians (Beutel and Marini 1995;Box-Steffensmeier, DeBoef, and Lin 2004;Charrad 2011;Davis and Robinson 1991;Hadler 2012;Inglehart and Norris 1999;Manza and Brooks 1998;McDermott 2016;Pratto, Stallworth, and Sidanius 1997;Shapiro and Mahajan 1986). Yet, in a gender-and-politics paradox, women are just as if not more conservative than men on certain issues related to notions of "traditional morality"-including gender-related issues such as abortion-in at least some contexts (Barkan 2014;Schnabel 2018). In another gender paradox, religion tends to be mendominated and yet women-populated . Historic religious figures and current religious leaders are predominantly men, and religion often promotes patriarchal beliefs and gender inequality (Edgell 2006;Edgell and Docka 2007;Schnabel 2016a).Nevertheless, women being more religious than men is one of the most consistent findings in the social sciences (Hoffmann 2009). Although the gender gap in religion is frequently noted, its political repercussions are largely ignored (but see Rinehart and Perkins 1989). As I will demonstrate, gender differences in religion help explain the gender-and-politics paradox on certain "traditional moral values" 2 related to sexuality and the beginning and end of life.In this study, I argue that religion intersects with social status characteristics such as gender and that the social consequences of religiosity vary across religious groups and contexts (Read and Eagle 2014;Schnabel 2016b;Stewart, Frost, and Edgell 2017;Wilde and Glassman 2016 Christianity specifically may be a feminine-typed "underdog" religion, appealing more to women based on gendered social norms and women...

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Situating Gender and Disability in Tourism Scholarship in Africa: An Introduction to Intersectional Perspectives

Woyo

Venganai²

2022

Gender, Disability, and Tourism in Africa

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Religion and Gender Equality Worldwide: A Country-Level Analysis

Cited by 121 publications

References 33 publications

Secularism and Fertility Worldwide

Secularism and Fertility Worldwide

Does Religion Suppress Gender Differences in Values? A Cross-National Examination

Situating Gender and Disability in Tourism Scholarship in Africa: An Introduction to Intersectional Perspectives

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