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How Islam Influences Women’s Paid Non-farm Employment: Evidence from 26 Indonesian and 37 Nigerian Provinces

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Review of Religious Research

Abstract

Studies on women’s employment in Muslim countries often mention Islam, but its influence is undertheorized and tests simply compare ‘Muslim’ women and areas to ‘non-Muslim’ women and areas. Here, multilevel analyses of Indonesia and Nigeria show this focus is not tenable: non-farm employment of Muslim women is not consistently lower than that of non-Muslim women, nor is it lower in Muslim-dominated provinces than in other provinces. A new theoretical frame conceptualizes religion’s influence in terms message and messenger. It is shown how different manifestations of Islam influence women’s non-farm employment, inside and outside the home. Empirically, the ideological strand of Islam is more important than differences between Islam and Christianity. In addition, when a conservative Islam is codified through Shari’a-based law women’s employment outside the home seems to be lower, but the presence of Islamic political parties seems to foster women’s access to the labor market through their focus on support for the poor.

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Notes

  1. At the time of the survey Indonesia had 31 provinces or ‘special’ areas. The survey includes 26: the conflict areas were not included (Aceh, the Maluku Islands—Maluku Ambon and North Maluku—and Papua—West Papua, Papua).

  2. Since this study is not a strict comparison between the countries, but consists of two separate case studies, these differences are not regarded as problematic.

  3. At the district-level not all control variables are included because of multicollinearity and the limited number of subnational units. The presented models include the variables that had the most impact across the board (see “Appendix 1” section). The models have been run with different economic control variables at that level, but this does not influence the results substantially.

  4. Based on an election results map including pie charts with the five largest parties, I was able to estimate the percentage of votes for PKB, PPP, and PAN in five percent groups. For Bangka-Belitung, Banten, and Gorontalo the percentage was taken of the province they belonged to before splitting up (South Sumatra, West Java, and North Saluwesi).

  5. It was not possible to distinguish different strands of Islam at the individual level.

  6. Women without children were given the mean score on this variable, and a dummy for having children is included (Allison 2001: 87).

  7. The difference between Muslim and Christian women is significant (A Mann–Whitney U test: p = 0.001).

  8. The p value of the Mann–Whitney U test was 0.163.

  9. The difference between Muslim and Christian provinces is significant (Mann–Whitney U test: p = 0.000).

  10. Not presented here for reasons of comprehensibility, but results can be acquired from the author.

  11. The effect for early parenthood points in different directions. An explanation for this might be found in Amin and Alam (2008), who, with respect to Egypt, mention that more capital is needed before people get married, and thus women, especially traditional women, have a more extensive labor history before marriage.

  12. In addition, Hindu women are less often housewives than non-Hindu women on Bali, and more often employed in agriculture (rice cultivation is important on the Island). The percentages are: Hindu/agriculture: 22 %; non-Hindu/agriculture: 5 %; Hindu/housewife: 29 %; non-Hindu/housewife: 41 % (n = 451).

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  1. Department of Sociology, Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Niels Spierings

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Correspondence to Niels Spierings.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 4.

Table 4 Variable description
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Appendix 2

See Table 5.

Table 5 Control variables’ effects on women’s non-farm employment in Indonesia and Nigeria belonging to Tables 2 and 3, Models 4
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Spierings, N. How Islam Influences Women’s Paid Non-farm Employment: Evidence from 26 Indonesian and 37 Nigerian Provinces. Rev Relig Res 56, 399–431 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-014-0159-0

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