Shauna Van Oosten

Does Religiosity Work?: the Labor Force Participation of Muslim Women, Compared to Christian and Nonreligious Women, in the Netherlands Shauna Van Oosten

Gender equality plays an important role in the political discourse of multicultural societies. It is widely assumed that immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants in Western European countries, are being held back in terms of their female emancipation due to certain tenets of their faith. This article questions this notion based on a study of the labor force participation of Muslim, Christian and nonreligious women in the Netherlands. This research has proven there to be no significant religiously induced lack of labor force participation on the part of Muslim women, whereas a significant relationship was found for the Christian subset of society. Therefore, this research continues the search for what is causing Muslim women to participate less in the labor force. Does her immigration history play a role in this? Do her attitudes towards gender equality influence her labor force participation in any way? How about educational attainment? Does having a partner play a positive or negative role in female labor force participation? And what about the presence of a child? This research disproves a number of persistent myths and opens doors to new studies.