Assessing Muslim women’s power: Islamism, political engagement, and the gender gap

Abstract

AbstractWhat explains the gender gap in collective political activism in the Muslims world? Under what conditions do Muslim women actively engage in mass political activism? Utilizing the World Values Survey (2010–2012; n = 19,616) and shifting the theoretical focus on the largely ignored meso‐level of analysis of organizational effects, this study conducts a two‐level analysis to (1) chart and reassess the gender gap and (2) analyze the extent to which the gender gap shapes collective political activism in 16 Muslim‐majority states. It probes the variation of protest engagement of women at individual, institutional, and state levels. Our findings suggest that while men appear more likely, on average, to engage in collective action, women with high associational social capital appear more likely than women and men without such capital to embark on collective protests in Muslim‐majority states. Notably, active engagement in civil society social networks emerges as a robust predictor of political engagement, suggesting that associational social capital remains an important factor of motivation and vehicle for mass political activism, particularly among Muslim women.